Honduras Logic

 September 8, 2015

Hey Guys,

Hope you all have had a great week. We have definitely had one here. We had a few exciting things happen this week. First of all, rainy season has officially started. Since I walked out of the Internet cafe last week, it has been raining on and off. It hasn't rained super hard yet, but I am sure expecting to see some crazy rain coming soon.

The funny thing about Honduras is that when there are days where there is sun, sun, and more sun, the water in the house is abundant, but the moment that it rains, the water stops coming. We went two days without water, but we got lucky and we had just finished showering when the water went out. At night, there still wasn't any water, so we figured that we would borrow some from our neighbor's pila (a giant cement tub of water). When we hauled it inside, we looked at the water, and decided that it was probably better that we not use it. You could literally see the worms swimming in the water. Haha. So we didn't shower that night, but the next morning the water came back, but only in the form of a steady drip from the faucet. It took about two hours, but we filled our bucket, and we each used one half to shower. The water was a nice golden brown, but it got the job done.

This Wednesday we had a Multi-Zone Conference in La Lima. It's like a twenty minute bus ride, but we were running late, so one of the other missionaries got the bright idea to call a taxi. It was cool, except the price difference is insane. A bus costs 12 (60 cents) Limps, and a taxi costs 300 Limps (15 dollars) to go that far. We got there on time, but we barely had enough to get home. Haha. The meeting was great, as always. President Klein talked about the importance of following today's living prophets, and he used the Book of Ether to show us. We have had the privilege of listening to two different members of the Quorum of the 12, and we should put an emphasis on doing what they have asked of us.

We are really excited to have General Conference this week. It is one thing to tell people that we have a living prophet, and another to tell them that we have a prophet, and "you should come listen to what he has to say."  It's a unique opportunity. You guys should use it and invite a friend or two.

This week we saw several small miracles. One of our investigators with a baptismal date started attending mutual with the young women, and the ward suddenly got excited. now everyone is asking when we have time to visit with them, and "hey I have a friend you should visit" and all that cool stuff. Hopefully we can work with some of these references and see where they take us. Maybe we can get some more baptisms.

Being a missionary is a humbling experience. I kind of feel like it's an "all eyes on you" experience. It's like, everyone sees what you do. The members, nonmembers, the JWs, the preachers of other churches, the hobos, and most importantly Heavenly Father. When a missionary makes a mistake, big or small, the whole world knows about it. The hope is to use the eyes on us to make a good name for the Mormons here in Progreso and erase the stereotypes that currently exist. Haha.

I love being a missionary, and I love preaching the Gospel to everyone. It takes a lot of effort, but it's an effort worth giving.

Elder Aldrich

Making Friends with Jehovah's Witnesses

September 21, 2015

Hey All,

We had another great week here in Progreso. This week had been filled with fun under the sun. The hot, scorching sun. Haha. Some have asked what the weather is like here in Honduras during the fall. This week we dropped down in the high 30s or maybe the low 40s. Here, it's in Celsius. Translation: Even in winter, it's 100 degrees outside. Haha. Here seasons don't exist. There is a rainy season and a not-so-rainy season. Right now it is moving into the more rainy part of the year, so that is super nice. When it starts to rain, you go to the closest house, yell "buenas!" and someone will let you in. The biggest problem is that you can't teach once you are inside because the rain beats too loudly on the tin roof.

Training a brand new missionary is quite the new experience. You would think that training someone that already speaks the language would be easy, but that would be an incorrect assessment. There are so many things to learn as a new missionary that I am so used to now, that I forgot that they were even weird. Not to mention the change of climate, comida, and slang. Probably the funniest thing is that in Spanish, there are two words for our word "grab". One is "agarrar" and the other is "coger". According to missionaries I talk to, in South America they use "coger" most, but here in Central America, that word is super vulgar, and means something completely different. This week my companion accidentally asked a lady to "coger" her Bible instead of "agarrar" it. Hahahaha. She gave him the dirtiest look, and I just started laughing as my companion tried to explain the difference. It was super funny. The good news is that people here are understanding.

On Friday, there was a big carnival in our area celebrating the creation of a neighborhood. There was a Ferriswheel, small rides, and a concert. No one was in there house, and if they were, they were getting ready to leave and told us to come back the next day. After managing to squeeze out a few lessons, we saw some Jehovah's Witnesses walking around tracting some houses, so I told my comp that we should talk to one. My companion didn't really want to, but I always enjoy talking to them and listening to them, so we walked up to one and started talking, and we talked about the Plan of Salvation. Supposedly, JWs never let us get two words in, but this man was actually really cool. He explained a little to me, then he asked me a question, and I got to teach a little to him. It was actually a great experience, and I have a lot of respect for these guys. This man was probably about 55 years old, has a family, a job, and he spends his free time trying to share his beliefs with others because he has found happiness through it. It was cool to kinda get to see the other side of things for a minute.

On Sunday we had two investigators in church. They both have baptismal dates for October 10th. My companion and I are way excited for October. It should be a great month full of success and excitement. The ward is seeing that we are bringing more and more people to church and they are starting to trust in us more and are evening starting to join us in the lessons. It should be a great week this week.

Have a great week!

Elder Aldrich

Another Great Week in Progreso

September 14, 2015

Hey Everyone.

We had another great week here in Progreso. Training is so much fun, and my companion is great. Still no double-blinking. Haha.

We found someone named Caleb this week. We were contacting and a kid came out and we did the whole "hey we are missionaries" deal, and when we asked him his name, he said Caleb. I was so excited and both my comp and this guy were staring at me like I was crazy and I just kinda laughed and we sat down and taught him a lesson. There is just something awesome about finding someone else with your same name in some third world country.

This week we had a Mini MTC activity with the stake. It was cool. We got up at 5, an hour and a half early than was really necessary in order to be at the church at 6am. The stake primary presidency showed up shortly thereafter, at 7:30 in the morning. I don't know what the zone leaders were thinking, but we could have used the extra sleep. They put the kids into districts of 10-12 kids, and put two companionships in charge of teaching them for two classes of 1 and a half hours.
Unfortunately,
our zone leaders failed to inform us that we would be teaching children. Can anybody say "Let's Wing It"? That's exactly what we did, and it went fairly well until they got hungry and bored, and it was even worse after giving them Popeyes chicken and Coca Cola. 12 kids hyped up on Coke is exactly what I imagined when I sang "I Hope They Call Me on a Mission" as a kid. Haha. Nah. It was a blast. It was interesting to watch a bunch of 18-20 year old guys trying to babysit and teach at the same time, and it actually turned out great. The kids loved it, and we even got to listen to a talk from President Klein.

Here is a picture of my trainer, Elder Diaz, his new missionary, and me and my new companion. It is kinda fun to be training as the same time as the guy who trained me. We saw each other on Saturday at the Mini MTC and chatted about my early days as a missionary and all the weird stuff I did and said. It is crazy to see how far I have come.

I hope you all have a great week.

Elder Aldrich

Training...Again!

September 7, 2015

Hey Guys,

Hope you all had a great week. Our week has been really eventful, and super slow. Last week, as I was walking out of the Internet cafe, I received a call from the zone leaders, informing me that I would be training a new missionary this change. Two changes, two newbies. I was pretty excited.

My new companion is fresh from Guayaquil, Ecuador. His name is Elder Martinez, and he is definitely not a "two-blink" companion. We are working hard and finding the lost sheep. We even managed to find some inactive members that no one knew about. We also had an investigator in church, which is always a major win here in Honduras, and I'm sure, in the world. We taught over 150 lessons this last change, and only 3 people came to church. We were so excited. He has a baptismal date for October 10, but he is great, and he might be able to be prepared for September 26.

We are closing in on that 14-Month mark, and I am really surprised. I feel like the mission just flies by, and that I never am going to have time to get everything done that I have to get done. It's just work, work, work, and I love it.

This week I am feeling much better. Thank you all for the prayers.

Elder Aldrich

P.S.- I have pictures, but the computer I'm using is weird and won't let me upload any. Next week.

Sick Week

Elder Aldrich came into the mission with these three Elders

August 31, 2015

Hey guys.

We're coming off another great week here in Honduras. However, I have been pretty sick this last week, and my ability to work has been pretty limited. I got sick on Tuesday and today I am still in the recovery stages. I think I got some strange Honduran super-cold. Wednesday and Thursday I couldn't even speak. Haha. It's always a new adventure in Honduras.

On Tuesday I went on divisions with my District Leader, Elder Navas. It was a blast. He is from Costa Rica, and it sounds like his family is really similar to ours. We worked real hard the whole day, and I think that might have been what aggravated my sickness.

The good news is that this next week is transfer week, so maybe we can see some changes and see some more success. No matter what, this upcoming week will be more eventful than this last one.

Have a great week!

Elder Aldrich

Elder Aldrich with two of his former companions 

President Nelson in Honduras

Photo by Sister Klein 

August 24, 2015

Hey Everyone,

This has been another great week here in El Progreso, Honduras. I can only say, "I love being a missionary." This week has been so spiritual and exciting and I can't wait for this next one.

This week we had a surprise visit by the president of the Quorum of the Twelve. Talk about awesome. On Monday last week the DL called us to let us know that the zone conference for the next day had been cancelled and that we would be listening to an apostle of Jesus Christ speak to us on Saturday. We were so excited, especially since Elder Andersen came in March, only 5 months ago. We showed up to the stake center and found out that he was actually in Tegucigalpa, and that we would be watching him speak over satellite, so that was a momentary bummer. His talk was incredible. He spoke in English, so it was a little slow with the translation every ten seconds or less, but it was awesome. I could feel the Spirit so strong and I learned so much about how to be a better missionary.

He talked about the importance of knowing the basic doctrine. Like why we build temples, the importance of the Abrahamic Covenant, and why Family History is so important. He left us a list of all the things that he thought Hondurans needed to hear in order to remain active in the church. He pointed out the same thing as Elder Andersen, people here are very easy to baptize, but very difficult to retain. He told us that if we would study and apply these things (there were like 10 in total) that our converts would stay in the church and be converted to the gospel (or maybe visaversa haha).

I got to go on companionship exchanges with the zone leaders this week, and that was a blast. One of our zone leaders was in my first district in Olanchito, and at the time, he was one of the more disobedient missionaries I had met, so it was a surprise to hear that he was a zone leader. I got to spend a whole day with him, and he is not the same missionary that I knew back in Olanchito. The guy works so hard, and he knows what he is doing. We had a good talk about how his mission had went, and there was just a moment when he realized that it was just time to grow up and serve like he knew the Lord expected of him, so that's what he did. It was just a cool experience to see how the Savior's atonement helps all people from investigators, to members, to missionaries.

My companion and I are just pluggin along here in Progreso. I love the work and we are finding a ton of new people to teach. We even have people coming to church! I can't wait for this upcoming week! Have a great week, everyone, and share the word with someone new this week.

Elder Aldrich

Back to the Beach

August 17, 2014

Hey everyone,

We had a great week this week. I am a little tired today, because we got up at 5:30 to go to Tela, but other than that, everything is going fantastically. My companion and I continue to work hard and find new people to teach. We had a pretty tough week, but we don't get discouraged. We just keep on keepin on and we make it through the day, and we realize it didn't go exactly as planned, but we can see the people that we have been able to help during each day.

This week we had an investigator that finally went to church. He has been listening to the missionaries for two or three months, and he finally had the opportunity to go to church. He studies on Sundays, but now he is going to start vacations, and he is pumped to start coming to church. We are now just hoping to see if his new schedule will allow him to get baptized.

As I said earlier, this week was just a difficult one here in Progreso. But we never get beat down, we never give up. We always give it just a little more and God gives us the success. I love to be a missionary. When people ask me how long I have left to be a missionary, I always get a bit of a lump in my throat as a think about how to use my last year to it's potential. I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for us in the next few weeks.

Elder Aldrich