Baptism, Beaches, and Blessed

June 22, 2015

Hey Guys,

We had another great week out here in Miramar, La Ceiba. It has been another eventful week in Honduras. Well, kinda.

To start, we had a baptism this week. Her name is Yetisley (good luck saying it), and she is another in the huge family that we are baptizing one at a time. Now there are only 3 more, and two of them will be getting baptized July 11th. It should be really cool. She was hoping to wait to get baptized with the other two, but it is taking more time than we had planned to get them married, so she decided that she didn't want to wait anymore and we dunked her. Haha.

We have been focusing on asking for references this week and received a whopping 9. Haha. We have been focusing on finding in really anyway possible. We had a pretty good week and even one of the heavily fortified houses (this thing was like a bank vault, 3 iron doors and 50,000 cameras) opened up to us. They didn't let us in because their dad is a lawyer. Lawyers here are way different than lawyers in the states. Here, lawyers have unfortunately short life spans because they are always against someone, and one side always loses, so someone is always mad at the lawyers. We stood outside and talked to these two guys, one is 19 and one is 17, and I just couldn't help but see myself and Tyler in these guys. They are religious, but they don't go to any specific church because their dad won't let them leave alone.

As another, somewhat similar, note, our cocinera's son got robbed this week behind his house at 5 in the afternoon. They shoved a gun into his stomach and went through his bag. Then he just walked into the house and was like, "hey mom, I just got robbed again." Like, no big deal. It's just everyday life down here. He started to talk to her about it, and he said, "they didn't take anything, they saw my Bible and got spooked." He kinda chuckled and made some comment about how lucky missionaries are to be protected because EVERYBODY knows that we have a Bible. Haha.

The two experiences together have been really eye-opening to me. I was so blessed and so lucky to be where I am, and who I am. I got lucky that I was born in the States, that we aren't begging for food, and that we have the Gospel. Talking to these two kids stuck behind metal walls all day, and the one who gets robbed and just goes on like nothing happened, really put some things in perspective for me.

I hope you all have a good week.

Elder Aldrich

These are just some pictures of the beach in my area. I am livin it up here in La Ceiba, and I don't have plans to be leaving my beach behind anytime soon.

Fourth Transfer in La Ceiba

June 15, 2015

Hey Guys,

As the title of my email implies, I did not get changed. I am still here in La Ceiba working away. I was honestly hoping to be transferred this week, but I am happy to keep working hard with the people I have been helping to prepare. In fact, I should get to see the majority of their baptisms if all goes as planned.

This week has been fairly uneventful except for a few events that happened this week. First of all, I did not get changed despite the HUGE number of changes that happened in our zone this week. Our companionship was one of the 2 companionships that did not have at least one, if not the two, companions get moved to another area. Even one of the missionaries in our ward who was only here one change got moved to San Pedro, and somehow I managed to hang out for another round.

Secondly, a HUGE group of missionaries finished their missions this week. Like 25 missionaries finished up their two years. I only mention them because when I started my mission, they had just over a year in the mission, so it crazy to see these guys finishing, especially since I am now where they were, and it has gone by so quickly. I still haven't hit hump day, but it's getting close...and I am having mixed feelings about the whole deal.

Thirdly, I finished Jesus the Christ. Holy cow that is a HUGE book, like 799 pages long. I loved it. I read twenty pages or so every night before bed, which is about one chapter per night. I learned so much about Jesus Christ, the Apostles, and actually quite a bit about the Jews. The book was written before WWII, so a lot of things are different, and his examples of Jewish sufferings didn't include the Holocaust. It was just a super interesting book and I am feel like I am closer to the Savior for having read it. Plus I am impressed with myself because I was pretty sure that I would never read the entire thing. Haha.

And finally, this week was Stake Conference for the La Ceiba Stake. We had a Seventy, Elder Galvez, the president of the Tegucigalpa Temple, and President Klein, our mission president. As missionaries we had to be in ALL of the meetings. We were in the church building from 2 on Saturday until 3 the next day. We stayed after to clean up, and the stake president invited my companion and I, along with the two zone leaders, to participate in their post-conference meeting to discuss what was learned and what the stake should do to keep progressing. It was a cool opportunity.

I am so excited to be able to work for another six weeks here in La Ceiba. I am grateful for the Plan of Salvation and for the new meaning it has taken in my life. I am grateful for Jesus Christ and the opportunity He has given us if we are willing to just humble ourselves and follow Him.

Elder Aldrich

Caleb lost a good friend on June 6, 2015 in a tragic car accident.  He expressed his love for Ciara, her family and the Savior.  He was deeply honored and touched to be included as an honorary pallbearer at her funeral services. Ciara will hold a special place in his heart, and for our family as well. God be with you Ciara-Broox Jackson until we meet again.

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