Painting Progreso Properly

November 30, 2015

Hey Guys.

I hope that you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving. I certainly enjoyed mine. It has been a great week filled with preaching, thanking, and painting. To start, Thanksgiving is not a holiday anywhere but the United States, so people all think we are weird, gluttonous turkey-worshipers. Well, not really, but we couldn't really use it to an advantage to ask people what they are grateful for and stuff like that. However, this time of year everyone seems to have a little more money around here (I think the muggers take the holidays off), and everyone and their dog is painting their house. I am grateful for paint, and I will explain why.

First of all, paint does not come out of shirts. The paint here is supposedly "water-based" and will come out of clothing. While it conveniently washes out of cement and other things, it does not come out of clothing. I have a designated paint outfit now. After our adventure painting Doc's office a few changes ago, people are always a little nervous to see me show up to their house to paint with more paint on my shirt than they actually bought to cover the walls. Stained shirts are a pain, except when you are walking to and from the place you are painting. People see you. As missionaries, we stick out. It's even worse since I am a gringo walking around. They all think we are weird, but they seem to change their thought process when the tie is left at home and we serve others. We have had several people stop us and ask if we paint houses for free. We are always a little hesitant to just straight up say yes, but we take a moment to explain the importance of service in the life of Jesus Christ. Kinda nifty.

Secondly, no one likes to paint. I doubt that the people we pay to paint houses like to paint. This makes it easy to offer help to investigators because they hate it so much that they let go of the idea that they can do it themselves and they let us hop in and help out. This week we painted the house of our recent convert Oscar, and we spent three days doing so. We showed up Wednesday morning to just paint one room, but when we got done, Oscar's mom asked us to paint the kitchen and the outside. We thought that it would be fine, so we hurried and painted the kitchen and decided to go back Friday morning to paint the outside. So, we went back on Friday, painted outside, and she said, "I know that you guys have painted so much already, but could you help paint this one last thing?" as she gestured towards her two rooms she rents out as apartments. We kinda just sighed and agreed, and we went back Saturday morning to finish it up. We spent a lot of time on this house, yes, but she went to church on Sunday. I wish I could show you the smile on Oscar's face as he led his mom into the chapel. It was so cool. He was so excited to be sharing the gospel. We got to spend a lot of time with a convert and his mom just by spending a few mornings painting and making friends.

Being a missionary is such a cool experience. It can get frustrating at times. I don't think I have ever been so sure that I can't go on. I definitely have never lost faith in the human race like I have here, but I also have never been so filled with hope and love for a group of people like I feel for the people of Honduras. They are so humble, irritating, and friendly all at the same time, and I love them. It is a difficult feeling to describe, but I am sure that mothers feel similarly with their children. Haha. I am grateful that we have a loving Heavenly Father who is aware of us no matter where we are.

This week was a rough one as far as finding, teaching, and really anything that can be reported to the Zone Leaders, but it was full of all sorts of other great experiences. I wish you all a Feliz Holiday Season. Have a great week.

Elder Aldrich

Surprises in Progreso

November 23, 2015

Hey Guys!

We had another great week here in Progreso. I was pretty excited for this week because it is change week, and no one ever really knows what will happen during changes. I was fairly certain that I was going to be packing my bags. I had three changes, two with my trainee, which basically means "adios." So it was a surprise when it was announced that Elder Martinez was being transferred, and that Elder Aldrich would be staying to receive a third companion here in Progreso. Sweet. So that's how it went. Elder Martinez is now in Barrio Los Angeles in San Pedro, the most dangerous area in Honduras. Haha.

I am now here in Progreso with Elder Sop from Guatemala. As well, Elder Ramirez (my 3rd companion) was transferred into our ward. I am so pumped for this next change now. We have three of my favorite missionaries in my district, my companion is great, and we should be baptizing this week.

This last week we painted a special ed school in our ward as a zone service project. We were taking pictures and video for our zone Christmas video, so I wore my Santa hat. It was super fun. We spent about 4 hours washing the walls, filling holes, painting walls (and each other), and cleaning up the mess. 20 missionaries between the ages 18 and 26 with a TON of paint is truly a recipe for disaster, but we managed to finish in a reasonable amount of time with minimal injuries and some great footage.

On Saturday we had stake conference, so we didn't get to do much work. The area Seventy, Elder Angel Duarte, came and entertained us all. He was full of jokes and some really great messages. As some of you may know Real Madrid played Barcelona this Saturday, and Barcelona kicked some butt. Elder Duarte mentioned during his talk that he was a Real fan and while slightly embarrassed by the lost, he still supports his team because "Christ won't be wearing red during the second coming." The shock value was high on that one, but the rest of his talk was great. Haha.

I love all the pictures of snow and general coldness. I am personally jealous that you all have seasons. Here is a crisp 100 degrees all day, everyday with 100% humidity. Haha. I can't even remember what cold feels like. I hope you all have a great week.

Elder Aldrich

Anticipation

Elder Diaz, my first companion in the mission, goes home this week, so we went out to eat.

November 16, 2015

Hey guys,

This week has felt so jam-packed and busy, but not very much has happened. My companion and I
cranked up the heat this week because it will likely be our last full week together. I love the guy, but it is really time to change the scenery. We had one day with 10 lessons! I love days like that. Everyone opens their doors, everyone is home, and the gospel is proclaimed to four or five people more than on a normal day.

I did divisions with one of the missionaries in my district. He is from Bolivia, and he is on his way out of the mission. He finishes February 2016. It was fun to work with someone with so much time and get to learn from him. I have spent the last 3 transfer periods training, and I almost forgot what it was like to NOT be the senior companion. I enjoyed just getting to sit back and let him be in charge for a few hours.

We worked a lot with some investigators that are preparing to be baptized the 28th of this month, one of which suffered a stroke in 2006. She struggles to speak, walk, and really just function on her own. We have been teaching her for a while now, and she is finally ready to take the next step into the waters of baptism. Over the course of the last few weeks we have been scrambling and scrambling to find people to take her to church in their cars. Here, having a car is a commodity that people just do not have. And if they do, they are very stingy about the gas usage and their miles. It is kind of frustrating,and at first, I just wanted to strangle these people until they would become Christlike and participate in some selfless service. In the end, I did not have to strangle anyone (I was close though haha) and one member decided to pitch in, and others have seen her, been filled with the spirit of Christ(mas), and now the members are in full swing. It has really been a miracle.

I hope you enjoy your week. I'm prayin for y'all.

Elder Aldrich

Our Zone made jerseys

A Visit from the AP

November 9, 2015

Hey Everyone,

I hope that you all had a great week. I certainly have. Just to get started, I would like to note that today marks 16 whole months since I left sunny Las Vegas to come to boiling Honduras. Two thirds down, one to go. It's kinda crazy.

This Tuesday, I got a surprise visit from the APs. They did divisions with the ZLs, and that means that they spend a day in a trio with the ZLs, and one other companionship in the zone. They picked me, and I do not know why. I happened to be in my own divisions with another companionship from the district, so we hung out in a trio, and I was the only one that was really supposed to be there. It was fun. Elder Hodson (AP) is from Las Vegas. He went to Bonanza High School. I've known him since the beginning of my mission, so it was fun to kinda catch up and talk for a bit. It was even more funny because we only had two lessons for the whole day. WE worked hard, got some references, contacted, everything, but we only had two lessons. I think I am the only missionary that can work with an AP and only have two lessons hahaha.

This week we placed another baptismal date for the 28th. That will make two for the same day. I am really excited. Both of the investigators attended church, which means they only have to go once more before they will have completed all of the requirements. The only down side is that transfers are going to be next week, and I most likely will be transferred and miss it. But that is nothing new. It happened in Olanchito, it happened in La Ceiba, and it is going to happen here. I guess it just means that I am doing what I am supposed to. You have to work hard, even when you won't see the results and the numbers don't count for you. You have to do it because you love the people, or it would be way harder.

I love being a missionary. I love helping people understand the importance of baptism and repentance. The Book of Mormon and the Bible have become real treasures that I can always go to when I need help. I love Mosiah 3:19 that says:

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."

Sometimes people think that in order to be baptized you have to be perfect. I love this scripture because King Benjamin reminds us that we won't be perfect because the natural man is an enemy to God, but then he reminds us of what we have to do in order to be made perfect. You have to be humble. You have to be willing to do what God asks of us, even if you don't like it. It is a scripture that I have used many times this week while preparing people for baptism. King Benjamin is the man. I love his speech in Mosiah. Read it.

Have a great week. Thanks so much for all the letters and support.

Elder Aldrich.

Tela: Round Two

November 2, 2015

Hey Guys,

Well, I have survived another great week here in Honduras. Yes. Yes. October has come to a close. I promise that I am not baggy (trunky), but that was my last Halloween here, and there is an exciting ring to it. Halloween here is known as the "the day of the witches," and there is a rumor that this is an important part of our doctrine. People all think we are witches and that we celebrate Halloween as part of some weird religious rite of passage or something. I spent the whole week answering a whole bunch of funny questions. Haha.

This week has been really fun. We did companionship exchanges with the Zone Leaders, and I got to go hang out with a missionary I have known for quite a while. One of our ZLs completed a year during the divisions. ZL in less than a year...wow. Haha. I have almost 16 months and I can barely handle the responsibilities of a DL. I learned a lot during the divisions, and I got even more animated to work hard.

We placed six baptismal dates this week, all for after transfers. It is kinda weird to think that all these people will be getting baptized after I take off. I had the opportunity to go back to my old area this week, and I was just so happy to see all the miracles that have taken place. FIVE people I was teaching have been baptized since I have left, one just last Saturday. Plus, the family that I helped baptize has brought another FOUR people I didn't know to the Gospel. It was an amazing experience to see the fruits of six months in La Ceiba. I hope that I can have a similar experience when I come back to Progreso. The good news is that I can help make our area a jackpot in these last two weeks before transfers. Whoever gets to come here will be seriously lucky. I love it.

Lastly, we went to Tela again. It was fun. It was one of those things where the ZLs didn't tell us until 10:30pm last night, but it turned out all right. There was an old, sketchy pier (that we found a Canadian on), a small octopus, and a mouth full of sand. It has been a fun day.

I hope that you all have a great week. Only 54 days till Christmas.

Elder Aldrich

Hot Chocolate in 95 Degree Weather

Photo by Sister Klein

October 26, 2015

Hey Everyone,

We had another great week. I am loving the heat, the sun, and the unusual lack of rain. Who knew that Honduras could be dry? Well, it is, and people are getting worried. I am less worried because no rain means clear (not clean, but clear) water, and I don't feel like I am showering in mud.

This week I had the opportunity to go on companionship exchanges with one of the new Elders in the district. His name is Elder Ward from Blanding, Utah. 50 points to anyone who can find it on a map ;). He is a really cool guy. He reminds me a lot of myself when I was just getting started, and he says a lot of stuff that reminds me of my brother Tyler as well, haha. We had a good day, and even fit in a chess match while waiting to report numbers to the zone leaders. He beat me, but I had him scared. Kinda.

While in exchanges, we went to a guy that the missionaries have been teaching for an eternity. He is the epitome of an eternal investigator, but we visit him once a week just to keep him interested until he can change his job schedule. Anyway, we went to visit him, and he gave us some hot chocolate. At first I was like, "seriously? It's like 95 degrees outside. This could kill us." But then I was like, "Holy cow this is fantastic." Haha. It was home-made. Like they picked the cocoa, dried it, roasted it, and then ground it. It doesn't get fresher than that. It was fantastic.

In other news, my companion has been having some pretty intense back pain, which is impacting his ability to work. Despite our limited hours of working, we had a decent week. He is starting to feel better, so we are very excited for this coming week. The highlight of which will be tomorrow, because my companion and I will be traveling to La Ceiba for a meeting. It will be in my old building and everything, so I think that I will be able to see some converts there.

Well, I hope you all have a great week. Don't forget to read your scriptures.

Elder Aldrich

Photos via The Mission President's Wife's blog

Baptisms: Round Two

October 19, 2015


Hey Everyone,

We had another great, and very exciting week. It is exciting in all the best ways. This week, we had our second baptism in two weeks. His name is Luis, and he is a youth that has been coming for quite some time, but due to problems with finding him at home and soccer practice and games, he hasn't been able to be taught all of the lessons. My companion and I started teaching him about two weeks ago, but we are missionaries 7 and 8 that have taught him, so we came out lucky. He had a nail removed from his toe last week, shortly after we started teaching him, giving him time to finally listen to us like we all wanted. He was baptized this Saturday, and the baptism in itself was filled with small miracles.

Baptism: Luis

So as I have previously explained, when it rains, we don't have water, which was the case on Saturday, and due to another event (which I will share shortly) we were in the church building at 5:15pm, without any water in the font. Normally with normal water pressure, the font takes about an hour to an hour and a half to fill completely, and the baptism was supposed to start at 6pm. When I went to turn the handle to turn the water on, I found that it was already on...and no water was coming out. The bishop (or one of his counselors) had come earlier in the day and turned it on, but nothing had come out, so they left it on hoping that at some point the water would come on (and for those of you who remember our baptismal font experience in La Ceiba will know that that is not a great choice). So, I did all I could do. I turned off the water, and said a quick, sincere prayer, just begging for us to have enough water to fill the font and have a successful baptism, and then I turned the water back on. The font was full before the baptism started. It was truly incredible, and I won't forget the experience.

The baptism itself went very well, with talks by several youth who have become friends with him throughout the process, and his school teacher (our bishop) got to baptize him. I feel honored to have been able to participate in such a spiritual experience.

On Friday, we went to visit Oscar, our recent convert from the previous Saturday, but he wasn't home. We ended up talking to his brother, Juan. He seemed really interested, and asked lots of questions. He said that he didn't have much time and asked if we could come back the next day, and we decided to go at 2pm. So on Saturday at 2pm we got to his house and as soon as we sat down, we knew we were in for a rough lesson. He had on his lap a JW bible and a Book of Mormon, well marked and definitely not the one we had left him the day before. He started right in and talked about everything from the Articles of Faith to Eve in the Spirit World. Every once and a while I would try to butt in and say something like "if you would let me explain this to you" or even "if you don't let us speak, we can never teach you what we came to teach." Finally, he finished, and it was about 4:15pm, and he sat and kinda looked at us expectantly, and I said, "we don't believe in fighting with the bible. I would love to show you some scriptures that explain everything, but it will have to be another day." Then I testified of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and my companion testified of the same, and that Joseph Smith really was a prophet of God. The Spirit was so strong, but Juan seemed unphased. We said a prayer and we left.

We did "splits" with the Ward Mission Leader and a priest to fill the font and go back to Oscar's at 5pm to prep him to receive the Priesthood. While I filled the font (see above), my companion went with the WML to teach Oscar. As it turns out, Oscar's brother had told Oscar to sit in the other room and listen to him "show us what the Bible really says." Oscar told us (and I'm going to paraphrase) that he heard everything, but what he remembered, and really cared about was our testimony. He said that he felt the Spirit, the same Spirit he felt when he prayed to ask God if what we teach is true. He told us not to worry. He knows where he is and why. I was very glad, in that moment, that I hadn't tried to "Bible-Bash" with his older brother, and that my companion and I had just testified of the restored truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I was also impressed with the surety of this recent convert's testimony. Again, I really am so grateful to my Heavenly Father that I have been able to be an instrument in His hands, and witness so many miracles.

Baptism: Oscar

Just as kind of a last note, transfers were this week, and our district leader was transferred and I am the new district leader. The other two missionaries that didn't get transferred are training new missionaries, and my companion is yet to complete his training, so I have a district with three new missionaries, and I am very excited to be serving here at this time. This transfer is going to be a great one full of all sorts of new adventures and challenges, and I am ready for them.

I love you all. I hope you all have a great week. Enjoy the colder weather, and send some my way. Haha.

Elder Aldrich

Sorry Zone Leaders, I can't send in our numbers, a dog ate our phone. HaHa