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

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.