Carnival

May 25, 2015

Hey Guys,

This was a great week. We had some really unique and interesting things happen to us this week. First of all, we had a surprise baptism. That isn't something that seems to happen very often, but it was cool. She is a little girl from a member family, but she just never had gotten baptized. Her mom finally decided that she wanted to baptize her, so she called us. We taught her a twice just to make sure that she could answer the interview questions, and then we baptized her on Saturday. Boom. Haha.

Last week, we found a family that was in need of a little bit of help. They are super poor. Like ridiculously poor. When it rains, all the water fills their house, forcing them to sleep on top of tables and chairs to keep from getting too wet. To solve the problem, they somehow got someone to give them a TON of free dirt to fill in the sides of the house to create a drainage system. However, the lady is 80 something years old and her daughter is 60 something. When we found them, they were sitting in front of their house staring at the dirt that had been dropped off an hour earlier. We asked them if we could help them out, and the old lady (who is very catholic) starting getting very excited and telling us how grateful she was to her Heavenly Father that we just happened to show up. We ended up helping them move dirt with buckets for two hours, leaving enough room for cars to pass, and we worked four hours on Saturday, and four on the following Wednesday. It was a ton of dirt. The two ladies probably won't progress or get baptized (mostly because when we challenged them to baptism, one said to the other "we might as well. We baptize ourselves everyday when we shower because our water is holy."), but they have a 13 year old boy who lives there. He is friends with a recent convert of ours, and the Gospel could really help this boy out, so we will see how that goes.

This week was Carnival here in La Ceiba. Supposedly it is the biggest carnival in all of Central America, and it was evident. Not a single person was home. Not even the pulperias had people to sell stuff. It was crazy. Of course, they did it Honduran style. They payed for really big-name reggaton artists and free alcohol. From what I have heard, the death rate out there is high, and the morals are not. The missionaries stayed far, far away from that area. Haha.

The mission is always coming up with new ways to keep me on my toes, and I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a servant of the Lord. I hope you all have a great week.

Elder Aldrich

Snakes, Bees, and Waterfalls (Oh My!)

May 18, 2015

Hello Everyone,

We have had a crazy day today, so I have almost no time to write today. Lame, right? I will try to keep this interesting.

First of all, we had a great week. It has been a little rough getting used to the new companion, but I think we are finally getting a hold of things. We had a great week and cranked out a whopping 34 lessons, the most that I have had in a week since getting into the area and we had 7 people in church this week! It was a serious blessing because the power went out, so it was ridiculously hot through all three meetings. When I say ridiculous, I should probably mention that it was probably just a handful of degrees from being dangerous. Haha.

At 6:17 in the morning, on Sunday, we received a call from our bishop. First of all, I don't have to be up until 6:30, so he is a truly evil man to steal 13 good minutes of sleep from a servant of God. Secondly, he was calling from the church building, so it makes it ok because he probably got up a full hour before that. Anyway, he asked us to speak in Sacrament Meeting. I spoke on the Sacrament. It went well even though they didn't really get my clever jokes...but that's ok. Haha.

Today we went on a hike. I say hike, but I really mean jungle excursion. Hikes don't exist here, because we kind of just pick a place and run up the mountain on trails that are only barely visible through all the leaves and animals on the ground. We had a funny run in when Elder Peterson (from Vegas) picked up a snake-shaped stick that suddenly came to life in his hands. The funnier part was the mix of English and Spanish warnings of danger being yelled in all directions as Elder Peterson tossed the snake into a tree. It was just a giant green jungle snake. No big deal. Even better was when Elder Peterson managed to find a tree filled with bees to lean up against. He got pretty lucky though, and only got stung 7 times. I had a pretty vicarious moment when I had three on my arm at the same time, but they didn't sting me, so I guess they were just saying "hi." Haha.

The waterfall was pretty cool. It was cool to be so close. However, some missionaries decided to go play in it, which seemed a little more sketchy (and against the rules), so I sat back and watched. Nature is an amazing thing.

To start and finish the hike, we crossed a cool and very Honduran bridge made of cables, old fences, and some other metal that I didn't trust. We lived despite the Zls' attempts to make the bridge fall. The four of them (we had two zones together) made it swing. It was impressive, but I was more impressed that the bridge survived.

All in all, it was a great week. I am definitely loving the mission. It is just flying by. Thanks so much to everybody. You're cool.

Elder Aldrich

Variety is the Spice of Life

May 4, 2015

Hey everyone.

As I said last week, this last Wednesday was change day. My companion did, in fact, get changed. I was pretty bummed to say goodbye to him. We really became great friends during the last couple weeks together and I was sad to see him go. But not too sad. Changes are always fun and bring the needed variety into our normal routine.

My new companion is Elder Miranda from Guatemala. He is pretty cool. He has 20 months in his mission, so he has come to La Ceiba to finish up his time her in Honduras. I am excited to learn from a veteran. Up until now, I haven't had a companion with more than 13 months in the mission. Haha.

For those of you who will not be talking to missionaries this weekend, you may not have noticed, but this weekend is Mother's Day. I hope that all you mothers out there enjoy your special day. I hope you all enjoy it.

This week we have been running around like chickens with our heads cut off. We are trying to get to know the members, find new investigators, help people overcome addictions, reactivate people, and even get some people married. That is a lot for two 19 year old boys to do on their own, but we are seeing miracles every day here. The changes in these people are incredible and it never ceases to amaze me to watch the Spirit work on people.

This week it has been raining like crazy here. In some areas, rain helps with contacting because people feel bad, so they accept us out of pure pity. Here, however, people decide that rain gives them the right to sleep, so we kind just stand in front of people's homes and yell "buenas" hoping that someone will hear us. Haha. This next week we are planning to contact a ton, so we are hoping for less rain.

I hope you all have a great week. Thank you so much for all the support. I would like to give a special shout out to the Moon Family (whoop!) who sent me a package with Nutterbutters, cause they're cool like that. Haha.  Thanks to everyone who has sent me a letter or package! Thanks a ton.

Elder Aldrich

Adios, April

April 27, 2015

Hey Guys,

We have had a really great week. We have been working hard and we have been really blessed by our efforts. We really get to see changes in peoples lives and it is a really great thing.

First of all, Honduras is weird. Their system of doing things is just really unpredictable and strange. Like today, for example, they decided to turn off the Internet for three hours at 2 pm. Like what? I don't know, but it made my companion and I laugh.

Secondly, this week is transfer week (Bum bum BUMM), which means that my companion and I will most likely be parting way. I say most likely because we never really know, BUT he has six months in the area and that is the normal amount, so we are expecting changes in the next few days. Elder Ramirez has been a great companion and a great friend. He has taught me a ton and I am bummed to see him go, but this change is going to bring a whole bunch of new adventures, and hopefully some baptisms.

Third. Our baptism for the week fell through. Can anyone say "frustrating?" I certainly can. We have been working with this guy two whole transfers and we were really hoping that he would take the next step into the baptismal font, but he figuratively slipped and fell on his behind. So instead of a baptism, we got to have one of the cooler lessons in my mission (so far) and we are going to make some more goals this coming week.

Fourth. We had an investigator try to give us a heart attack this week. My companion and I about screamed in shock (and one of the more pure forms of excitement) as the wife of an investigator walked into sacrament meeting. We have been teaching them both, but only the husband, Licar, comes to church. He has come by himself for over a month and his wife, Derel, never has really shown much interest. It came as a surprise to watch her come in. I was even more impressed as we taught them the Law of Chastity and invited them to get married. THEY ACCEPTED and we are going to help them out every step of the way. (We will probably be seeing baptismal photos in early June ;) ) hahaha

To round off the week, we got go to Wendy's for lunch today, and I met like 14 old people from the states. They were cool, but strangely boring... I don't know why, but I found it funny to see Wendy's transformed into a mini old folks home. Haha. Frosties are still the best, but it took me long enough to enjoy dipping my fries in them. I showed my companion today and he got up and bought a Frosty himself. BOOM, hooked.

Thank you all so much for the love and support that I receive from each and every one of you. Every ounce is need and well used. Thanks.

Elder Aldrich

Seven Down, Two to Go

April 21, 2015

Hey guys,

This has been a really great, but very crazy week. Especially because I am writing this email on a Tuesday afternoon instead of on a Monday. Our mission president came to talk to all the leaders of the mission, and my companion happens to be a district leader, so he went to the meeting and I went and worked with another missionary. It was actually really fun because he was one of the Latinos Missionaries who was in my group. It was interesting talking to him about the mission from the two perspectives. It was also funny to hear about the funny things our group of gringos said to him in our early-Spanish stages.

This week we did have another baptism. This time it was the grandma and the aunt of the two boys we baptized at the end of March. Their family is huge, and they are all getting baptized two at a time. So far seven have been baptized, two more have baptismal dates, and two more are listening to us but have yet to accept a baptismal date. This Saturday we may, or may not, be having another baptism. I am really excited to be allowed to be a tool in the hands of the Savior as I work in this area with my companion. In my first area we did a lot of reactivating, but here we are doing a lot more baptizing. It's really been fun.

Just to give you an idea of a basic meal here in Honduras, think of rice, then some pork, and deep fry all of it. Haha. Here everything is deep fried and covered in rice. The food is actually pretty sweet or pretty salty, but never spicy. Hondurans are really kinda wimpy on that subject. They don't like peppers. I eat Baleadas for dinner every night which is literally just a tortilla with refried beans in the middle. Sometimes people give them to us with eggs, creme, or cheese as well. One with just beans costs the equivalent of 30 cents in America and one with eggs costs 50. It's a really cheap way to eat, and it fills you up. Pretty smart if you ask me.

This week was ridiculously hot. We broke 100 degrees this week, and it was pretty rough. 100 degrees in Vegas is intense, but 100 here is insane. There is no hiding out in the shade, behind fans, or even inside your house. It just bakes you from all sides, and we don't have air conditioning. It was crazy, especially because the power went out for 5 hours during the day last Tuesday, and at night Monday and Wednesday. It was a week that I will remember, but people were way nicer about letting us in and giving us some water because they all felt bad for us. I was pretty grateful for that.

I hope you all have a great week this week and enjoy your air conditioned homes ;) haha.

Elder Aldrich

The Grind

April 13, 2015

Hey Everyone,

We had a really great week this week. I hope you all have had the same. We really haven't done a whole lot that was really exciting. We kind of just gotten into a rythum and we do the same thing every day. We have a few baptisms scheduled for this Saturday, but they are pretty up in the air as of right now because there is a chance that they will have to go out of town this week... So we will see how that goes.

We had a few interesting encounters with some Jehovah's Witnesses this week, the funniest being when we walked out of an appointment with a recent convert's house and found them teaching his sister. It was just funny because we all just kind of stood there awkwardly and looked at eachother while the dad unlocked the gate. It was just a funny moment I hope someone else will get. Hahaha.

So I was serious when I said that nothing really happened this week. I hope that I can have some cool experiences to share in this upcoming one. Hope you all have a great week.

Elder Aldrich

General Conference 2

April 6, 2015

Hey all,

I am going to start by saying that I love general conference. I love the spirit that is there and I love to listen to the people chosen by the Lord to lead and to guide us. I feel like I love it even more because we explain to people all day, everyday that we have living prophets in our day, and now we can live what we preach by following the guidance they give us.

Our week has been fairly uneventful. Actually, it has been super uneventful. Our area has been totally dead all week long. The week before Easter is called Holy Week, and everyone goes swimming and partying. Nothing like breaking a few commandments to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, right? We only had a handful of our planned lessons, but we had some very spiritually ones, and we even had some investigators accept baptismal dates.

My companion completed his year in the mission this last week, so we decorated a shirt and burnt it at our cook's house. She is like 55 or something, and we woke her up at 9 to have her help us. She was so funny. She was more giddy than a school girl, and we even let her light it. Haha.

I am really excited to get back into the normal swing of things this next week now that people will be in there homes. I know I always say it, but I love it here. Hondurans are really hard to love sometimes, and Honduras is even worse, but I love it. The food, the people, and even the humidity. I really feel bad that all you guys don't get to come experience this place.

Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Aldrich