Progressing in Progreso

August 10, 2015

Hey all,

We just finished another outstanding week in Progreso. I still am missing my converts and investigators from La Ceiba, but I am more and more excited to be here. The work in Progreso is interesting. Our area hasn't baptized anyone in SIX MONTHS. That is kind of a ridiculous amount of time for an area to be without success. I was honestly a little pumped when they told me that because God doesn't stop preparing people to be baptized, so we have six months of people to find and baptize in addition to the people God is currently preparing for us; and man have we found some prepared people.

I would just like to share the quick story of Super Mario (now retired and raising a daughter). My companion and his companion before me, found these two contacting, but never were able to teach them. We tried again when I showed up, and we got lucky. The husband (Mario) was home and he let us in. The first problem was that at that very moment, the CONCACAF Gold Cup was 5 minutes from halftime, and he didn't want to turn the TV off. So we talked to his wife for a minute and waited for the game to go to half. At halftime, we turned off the TV and he gave us fifteen minutes to tell him what we had to say. That's all we needed. Haha. We started to teach about God, prophets, Jesus Christ, and the Great Apostasy, and the whole time he was checking his phone, playing with his six-month-old daughter, and just wasn't paying attention. As we started talking about Joseph Smith, however, we kinda leaned forward, and payed close attention. He listened to every word as my companion recited the First Vision, and when Elder Valenciano finished, we all just sat there in silence. Then came the questions. Like actual questions about doctrine and God and why a church is important for each of us. We closed with a prayer, and went almost two weeks without having any contact with him.

Saturday night, we finally got lucky and found him and his wife again. He had read the Introduction of the Book of Mormon and had a ton of questions. We answered them, and invited him to be baptized. He thought about it for a good minute, then explained that he and his wife are Catholic, and that they really planned on remaining Catholic, until we got there. He said that God had sent us there for a reason, and that they would talk about it and decide what to do after praying and asking God if the Book of Mormon is true. After this lesson, I realized that these things don't just happen in movies. Our Heavenly Father is preparing people that we need to find, that we need to teach, and when His sheep hear the Shepherd's voice, they come.

We are having amazing experiences here in Progreso. The field is white and begging for a harvest, and my companion and I are ready to do it. We are looking forward to the next few weeks and I can't wait to see what else the Lord has in store for us. I hope that you all are helpin out your local missionaries with investigators. You'll be blessed. A referral is like a Christmas gift in August. Haha.

Have a great week!

Elder Aldrich

Week 2 in Progreso

August 3, 2015

Hey all,

I hope that you all have had a great week. Our week has been pretty interesting. Progreso is super weird, I think. People here are all super friendly even though they're all like, "freak. The Mormons found us." They let us in, invite us to sit down and share something, then say that we can come back a few days later...to look at an empty house. Like, what? If you aren't interested, just go ahead and tell us. Haha.

One day this week my companion and I had eleven appointments in one day. Correction: Eleven people told us to come by on Wednesday. THIS JUST IN: ten of them were lying hahaha. We had a pretty fun day on Wednesday tracting. It turns out that my companion, probably because he is so new, doesn't know where our area ends...so that is a problem that we are going to be taking care of this week. But the tracting helped us both get a little better feel for the area and find a new confidence in contacting (contacting and tracting are the same...).

As I have previously mentioned, I love contacting. It is fun to just talk to random people and be like, "Hey. Let us in your house." The missionary tag does magic, because I never let strangers into my house, nor will I probably ever do so. People let us in about half the time, which is incredible when you remember that Honduras is one of the most dangerous places on Earth. Haha. I would love to tell you that we had some mind-blowing spiritual  experience, but we really didn't this week. We did, however, find eleven new people, so we will see how the next couple of weeks go.

I hope you all have a great week and that you all can do your part to help your local missionaries. Peace!

Elder Aldrich

Training in Progreso

July 27, 2015

Hey All,

Yep. You all read that right. I'm training! That's a little weird. I got lucky and he isn't new new, he's already had one change, but his comp got changed and now I get to finish up his training. His name is Elder Valenciano from Mexico. He is exactly like my trainer was, so that is really funny. We should have some success here and I am grateful for the opportunity.

I am in a city called El Progreso, Yoro. It isn't that far from San Pedro (about 15 minutes in bus). It is even bigger here than La Ceiba. I am in the Progreso Ward, and one of the counselors to President Klein is in our ward, so that was a surprise on Sunday. Haha. It is awesome because we live somewhat close to an actual grocery store, so I bought grape jelly! I am so pumped, and my companion was really confused as to why. I just laughed and told him that he would understand when he goes to places like Olanchito.

Progreso is a great place and the members are super supportive. I am really excited to be here and start baptizing. Haha. I can't wait to see what this change brings for us here. Have a great week!

Elder Aldrich

T - Minus 2 Days...Maybe

July 21, 2015

Hey Everyone,

Wow. We have had an amazing week, and I feel like I have a ton of things to talk about. First of all, Wednesday is transfer day. I am like 99.9% positive that I am going to be transferred this week, and boy is it a bittersweet feeling. I have had some amazing ups and some insane downs here, and I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for every last experience. I am going to be so sad to leave behind all these people I have grown to love. We have several people who will be making the decision to be baptized in the next month and I will be sad to miss their baptisms, but I can't wait for the new adventures that will come! I can hardly wait.

Tracting has become a love of mine. I definitely would totally follow it on Twitter or give it a "Like" on Facebook if I was allowed to use social media. It is fun to get to just talk to people. We are in a small area, and I have tracted out ever last house here 2 or 3 times, but we just keep sweeping through the streets because God's thoughts are not our thoughts. People think, "I've contacted this house 4 times already and Mrs Angry can be pretty rude, we better just skip it," but God says, "you better knock on that door because I have children in there." That happened to us this week. We tracted a house of a lady who had previously yelled at us to get out of there, but we felt like we should contact her home again. This time, another person came out and asked us to come in. Her first question was, "if there is only one God, why are there so many different religions?" That was a great lesson, and I could feel the Spirit very strongly as we testified about the need of prophets and that Jesus Christ is our Savior. It was a cool experience and I was grateful to have listened to the Spirit.

On a different, funnier note, we met a sweet old lady this week named Jesus. She was funny, but I don't know what her parents were thinking when they named her. Also, on Thursday when we were walking in the street, a random guy got really close to us, and I was sure that he was gonna rob us, but he didn't. I was slightly surprised when he asked "are you guys Mormons?" I was even more surprised when we answered that we are and he started yelling "call the pastors! They have demons! They have demons! We need an exorcism!" Like...what? So we just left the guy where he was and hopped into a member's home before he came back for us. Hahaha. You gotta love a good anti-Mormon.

Today we played soccer with the two zones here in La Ceiba. I have become rather popular as a goalie, and I pretty much played all time goalie the whole morning. Haha. Then we put together a Gringo Team and took on "Los Chapines." (Chapin is the nickname for Guatemalans.) We had two of us Vegas folk, a kid from Idaho, and a guy from Utah, and we rocked. Haha. It became a point to get us off the field. I scored two or three, the other Vegas kid got one or two, and our homie from Idaho stopped a few goals that were quite impressive. GRINO POWER. Haha. It was a blast. I will be teaching everyone how to play mini-soccer when I get home.

I absolutely love being a missionary. I still have a year left, but I feel this urgency like "you're running out of time!" I hope to be able to have success whereever it is that the Lord sends me. I hope that you all take a moment to help someone else during the week. Have a good one!

Elder Aldrich

One Year and a Week

July 13, 2015

Hey Guys,

This week was really great, except that I spent my one year mark in bed with a migraine haha. Crazy, right?

This week, we had a baptism planned. There is a boy named Kevin who is about to turn 13 and has been attending church by himself for the past two months, and he finally has decided that he wants to be baptized. Our only issue is that he drinks coffee, because there is nothing else to drink. Anyway, we had a Family Home Evening with him the the youngmens president's house with all the youth. It was really cool to watch a group of youth all bear their testimonies and bring this guy into their group.

On Tuesday, I had a kind of funny experience. We were in a families house teaching, and another person came in and wanted to listen, so I hopped up and gave my spot to her, and sat on the ground. As soon as I sat down, one of the investigators started laughing and then I felt it...I had sat in something wet... Apparently one of the kids had wet himself, and they had just forgotten to clean it up... Like what?! Who just doesn't clean up kid urine? I had checked before I sat, but I just didn't see it, and nobody warned me. It was pretty embarrassing and I about killed them haha. But don't worry, it was our last appointment of the day, so i didn't smell bad for too long.

We are also teaching a guy that reminds me of my Uncle Matt a ton. He's about the same age, looks a little like him, they talk the same (well this guys speaks Spanish and Matt speaks English, but you get the idea), and our investigator even has a cat that he loves to death! Hahaha. This guy lived in Salt Lake for almost 10 years with his family, but he got into some trouble with the law, so they sent him back here. He hasn't always made the best decisions, and he has a lot to change, but when I listen to him pray, I can just feel his desire to change and we can see the Spirit working on this guy in ways I haven't really seen. It's just moments like these where all the trials that I have been going through don't matter. It doesn't matter that I'm tired or sick, or worried about things at home, but I can see (and feel through the Spirit) that I was meant to stay here for another change and struggle through the things I have struggled through.

I love my Savior. I hope that you all can find a love for Him as well this week and every week.

Elder Aldrich

This is a recent convert in blue and the investigator that is going to be baptised in red.

Still goofy.

What day is it? What DAY is IT? HUMP DAAAAY

July 6, 2015

Hi Everyone,

Thank you all for the kind reminder that I am now old in missionary years. I'm so surprised at how quickly this day has shown up. I feel like I am doing things right because I almost didn't even notice. I am really trying to give it my all, and it has been a blessing to be here in Honduras.

Just to throw in a mini "summary" of the year, I have had 5 companions (including the MTC), 2 areas (not including the MTC), and 8 baptisms. I was trying to add up all the lessons I had taught, but I kept losing track and I decided that it wasn't really that important. I have taught about 30 a week, so 20 times 46 (because we don't teach in the MTC) is 920 lessons in a year. That isn't exact, but it's definitely in the range. Haha. Being a missionary is a really radical lifestyle when you think about it. We get up at 6:30 in the morning, read the scriptures for two hours, then talk to everyone we pass until 9:30 at night, with only a two-hour break at lunch (we study language at 1).

I don't know about you guys, but I found it hard to talk to very many people I passed in Las Vegas when I was cruising around in my car. Here, I am just grateful that my voice hasn't gone out. The idea is that if you can talk to every single person you pass, when you or some other missionaries knock on their door in a month or two, their is something familiar there which will let them want to have you in their house for a discussion about Jesus Christ. It is a great experience to be able to give 100% of everything to the Lord.

This week has been rather short on events, but there were some good ones. First of all, my favorite kid in our ward just hopped on a plane to go serve right alongside Elder Berry and Elder Payne in the Mexico Mexico City North Mission. He always goes on divisions with us one or two times, and we have become real good friends in these last five months. I have my fingers crossed that he will be companions with at least one of these losers out in Mexico. Haha.

The other news is that today made "Mangu," a typical food of the Dominican Republic. One of the elders in our district is from there and we all pitched in to eat some good food. It's basically mashed plantains and spaghetti sauce...what? It was actually pretty good considering that I am not a fan of plantains. I will have to figure out how to make some once I'm done preachin the good word.

I hope that everyone has a great next year. Don't miss me too much ;) hahaha. Thanks for all the prayers and support!

Elder Aldrich

Enthusiasm is Everything

June 29, 2015

Hey Everyone,

We have had another good week here in Miramar. I seriously love this area. Some of the members here are just amazing. I would be content with another whole transfer here, but I don't think I'll get to do that. I'm going to enjoy these next three weeks.

This week I got to do divisions with one of the Elders in our district. He's 23, and his view on the Gospel is very practical. It was fun to get to spend some time with him and learn from him. I really enjoy doing divisions with other missionaries. You can learn so much from other people. It is not important whether they work hard, are obedient, or speak Spanish. Everyone has something to teach you, and I would imagine that the real world is exactly the same.

On Thursday we had a Multi-Zone Conference and President Klein talked about the relationship between Faith, Repentance, and Charity. He also mentioned that people do things for one of three reasons: Fear, Duty, and Love. He talked about his own mission and that when he left to serve in Argentina, he left to complete his duty, but that as he dove into the work, he began to be there because he loved it. He used this to show that when we have faith, we do things because we are afraid of what God will say in the last day if we don't do them. When we repent, we now do things because we want to be better, but maybe we haven't given everything over to God yet. Having a desire to sin, but not doing it is in the DUTY category. We are obedient because we have repented and now have a duty to not sin. However, if we repent and actually forsake the sin, and lose the desire to sin, we have moved from repentance and duty to charity and love.

Charity is a gift from God, and with it comes things like Enthusiasm, the Spirit, and Success. He said that just as much as Charity is a gift from God, "animo" (or in English, enthusiasm) comes from God. That was extremely helpful for me because the last few weeks have been especially difficult with the loss of Ciara, a tough companion, and staying in the same area for a prolonged period of time. I am really so grateful that I have been able to keep my head up in the times of trial with the help of the Savior. I often read Alma 26:27 and Alma 7:11 when times get tough, and I am able to always work with "animo" and love for these people I am with.

I hope you all have a great week.

Elder Aldrich