The Journeys of an Office Missionary

January 23, 2016

Hey Guys,

As always, we had another great week here in San Pedro Sula. I really am enjoying my time here in the mission offices. We are always busy, and it can be a little stressful, but we get to have new and unique experiences.

On Sunday last week we did divisions with our District Leader, Elder Victor, and his companion. They both came to our area to help us out because we don't get to work much, and they decided to be good guys and help us jump start our area. It is cool the miracles we see as office missionaries. Heavenly Father is aware that we are doing a lot, and that we really want to be in the field, so he just puts people in our path to help. In the few hours we were out working, we found a family that is ready and had been waiting to hear our message. They are cool people, and I can't wait to see their progress.

We had an Elder go home this week for health reasons, which is never fun. Our job is to make sure that he gets to the airport and on the plane, but since he hurt his back, he couldn't go on a bus, so we got to drive all the way to Tela! Tela is about 3 hours away in bus. We went and did all the interchanging of missionaries ourselves. We went and picked up an Elder, took him to Tela, and brought the other back with us. Honduras really is such a beautiful country. I am a little bummed that I wasn't able to take pictures, but it was way fun to drive.

I also got to go help with "the Ruta", a system we have to get the Elders and Sisters the things they need in order to be missionaries (scriptures, pamphlets, etc.). That meant more driving. We spent five hours driving all over Northern Honduras. We saw some pretty good things. I love the cars that are so filled with garbage that they are twice their size trying to drive down the freeways. The actual garbage trucks are funny to see too, because they look like hoarders on wheels, and the workers just ride on top usually. Today we saw a guy wrapped in plastic wrap, driving down the road on his motorcycle. I assume the plastic was to keep him dry.

I am very excited for tomorrow, because tomorrow is Sunday, and Sunday means work, and work means teaching. I hope that we can have more cool experiences as we search the elect of God. Have a great week.

Elder Aldrich

We wash the truck once a week, but I don't know why it gets dirty again in a matter of hours.

This is a huge Catholic Church in San Pedro Sula.  It is like the Salt Lake Temple in Salt Lake City.  Everyone give directions based on how many blocks you are from it.

Everyone in the mission calls our house the "Barbie Dream House." I assume it is because it is pink.

All the Las Vegas missionaries get trunky when they come into my office.

The Man with the Money

January 9, 2016

Hey Guys,

This week has been really exciting. First of all, you will probably notice that today is Saturday. I had changes this week, and I was moved from my old ward in Progreso to La Mesa 2 in La Lima. I have also been moved from DL to Financial Secretary. Yep. That's right. I'm in the office, and I am in charge of the finances of the entire mission. It's kind of crazy when you think about it. I'm 19 years old with zero experience and I've been given quite a bit of responsibility.

This change doesn't surprise me a bit. The last 4 financial secretaries came from Progreso 1, my last area. In fact, President seems to send them there, let them train a time or two, and then he brings them into the office. For those of you who are counting, I was four transfers in Olanchito, four in Miramar, La Ceiba, four in Progreso, and I will now have four here in La Mesa, La Lima. Because the job is so big and complicated, financial secretaries stay for four changes: three as the financial secretary, and one training the new one. So, we now are 90% sure that I will be finishing the mission here in La Mesa.

My companion is Elder Perez from El Salvador. He has the same time as me. We will be going home the same day, and I have known him for a while. I am really excited to work with him for a few changes. Our area has only had sisters for a really long time, so the members are excited to see the Elders again. We don't actually have an assigned area because the financial and immigration secretaries require more time than the other two secretaries, so we will be in the same area as the sisters. It is different than what I am used to, but I am excited.

On Thursday we got to take all the missionaries who were headed home to the airport. We did it in two trips. One at 3am, and another at 8:30am. My companion is in charge of making sure that all the missionaries get in and out of the country without problems, so I just had to go with him to the airport. It was probably the most trunky thing ever. I watched two batches of missionaries go home. Haha. I will probably see a whole lot more of that airport before June rolls around.

Probably the coolest part of being in the office is the car. I am glad that I brought my license because I am now one of only four missionaries that can drive a car here in the San Pedro Sula East Mission. It is so fun to get to drive to and from the office and run errands and all that good stuff. We have a Nissan Navara. I think in the states they call it a Frontier. It's a sweet little pickup and I love just getting to drive it around.

I am really excited for the new opportunities I have been given in this new aspect of the mission. It will be such a great experience and I am so grateful. I hope that you all have a great week and enjoy The cool winter air.

Elder Aldrich

Goodbyes in Progresso.

Baptism At Last

January 4, 2016

Hey Guys,

We had a great week this week. We started it off with divisions on Tuesday, and I got to go work with Elder Ramirez again. That is probably the last time I'll ever get to teach with him, which is kinda sad, and exciting because we both are in our last stretch. We did lots of visits, and we even visited some members to talk about visiting with the missionaries. It was a blast.

On Thursday we worked during the day, had an interview for Hortencia, and then we were in by 8pm. The mission put in place that rule a week after Christmas. I wonder what happened to cause it. Haha. The other missionaries stayed at our place again and we played Monopoly several more times. Monopoly has become an addiction for the four of us. I won the last game of the year 2015 and Elder Ward won the first of 2016. I am currently 5-4 which is impressive because every round 1 person wins and 3 people lose. We usually just play on P-Day, but having the Christmas and New Year's celebrations helped us get a few extra games in. Today I lost just barely to Elder Ward. It was lame.

On Saturday we had the long awaited baptism of Hortencia. We contacted her after a reference another member gave us, gave us a reference in October. It has been a long road because she had a stroke several years ago and can barely walk, speak, or read, but we were patient and the ward was great. They showed up to help take care of her all this week after last week's event in church. The service was great, but the logistics of baptizing someone who can't walk right were weird. We slowly helped her into the font, and even though I was going to perform the ordinance, my companion also hopped into his baptismal clothes and stood in the font as well. His job was to hold her feet. We were only gonna be able to do it once. It went smoothly, until she freaked as she went under and went all stiff. We got her under but she stayed in the font a little while just floating until she calmed down.

Sunday was great. We had 3 people in sacrament, the most I have ever had here. The counselor for President Klein confirmed Hortencia. It was a nice way to finish off the transfer. I am so grateful for the time I have been given to be here in Progreso. Transfers are this week, and I am expecting to be transferred to San Pedro. It's never a sure deal, but that's where I imagine that I will end up.

I hope you all have a great week.

Elder Aldrich

Scare in Sacrament

December 28, 2015

Hey Guys,

I had another great week this week. There was a ton of excitement here as you can probably imagine. Honduras really doesn't have any traditions as far as Christmas goes, so they just blow stuff up, but I'll explain that in a few.

On Tuesday we had our Christmas party. It was a blast. We ate a ton of food and had several investigators. I took my Santa hat and I was looking pretty good until every primary kid decided that I looked so good that they needed the same thing. So, I had six or seven people trying to steal my hat, and I actually lost it for an hour or two to a four year old. Haha.

Christmas Eve was an adventure. I spent the day in Corocol waiting to do some interviews, but they never came. I sat on the floor in front of some Honduran church building for about three hours, then we went home to buy some cake, then we went back. I did some interviews, then we went to the Christmas Eve dinner a family invited us to. The problem was that it was 8 at night on Christmas Eve. There were no taxis and no buses, so we had to walk a two or three miles back to my area and we were about an hour late for dinner. We ate quickly and then were home by 9:30pm.

We had two other missionaries in our house. We played Monopoly several times (I won twice). At midnight, people started blowing things up. Some people have fireworks, but most people just blow things up. Some of the explosions are pretty strong, and we were out front hiding behind the house sticking our arms out trying to catch some on camera. It was fun.

Christmas was great. I loved taking to my family. It is always a special day. Only one more skype call left and I'm out. Haha.

On Sunday we had a scare in sacrament meeting. Do you remember when I was a teacher and passed out during the sacrament? It was pretty funny, right? Well, we had 58 year old investigator with many health problems pass out during sacrament meeting on Sunday. Luckily we have one doctor and two nurses in the ward and they went right to work. It was scary because the doctor took a very long time to find a pulse. We thought that she straight up died on us. It was awful, but they got her heartbeat back and we gave her some food. Like nothing happened. Her blood pressure just dropped. To zero. But she's ok now, and she still wants to be baptized this week. I will let you all know how that goes.

Have a great week. Be awesome. Do something nice for someone else.

Elder Aldrich