Drive By!!

                            Elder Sullivan and Elder Briggs got to see each other at a Multi-zone Conference 

Hola Amigos,

Oh gizzards! Every week here has something new to teach me! Some very sketchy things happened and also some spiritual things. First of all I have to say that I'm happy to be alive at this moment because I was basically in a drive by shooting on Monday night. We were walking home from the Texaco around 9. The streets were empty. but we heard a series of 4 or 5 pops It stopped and then started again! I had a feeling that they were gunshots but my comp told me they were just fireworks. Ha, Funny bruh! Well about 15 seconds later a massive diesel came drifting around the corner one side off the ground literally. It was hauling. As it passed the guy in the passenger seat was leaning out the window holding a massive gun and pointing it towards us. Luckily he didn't shoot, but me and my comp started running as fast as we could and my adrenaline was pumping! A few seconds later a cop truck flew by with 5 dudes standing in the back with guns.  When we got to safety my comp told me he knew that those were gunshots he just didn't want to scare me. Anyway, now i get sketched every night if i see a big truck. 

     I am getting better at contacting and talking to the people about the gospel, but if its a normal conversation I have no idea what's up. While we were contacting this week there was a parrot chillin in front of one of the houses. We dont knock cause they don't have doors. We just yell buenas! and when we said that the parrot yelled "Buenas" back.  It was dope! I went on splits again, this time with Elder Banda in Juticalpa this week. We contacted and taught this kid names Alex. he is 17, can't read, and works every single day from 3 in the morning to 7 at night. Anyway,  after our lesson he said he wanted to be baptized and go to church. I wish he was our investigador. Later that night the 4 of us got back together and went to dinner. This was no ordinary dinner bruh. This was dope. We went to a crepery man! It was so nice inside, decorated all hipsteresque and stuff. I had a nutella waffle with whipped cream, strawberries,  and bannanas on it. And some hot chocolate. It was the most beautifull sight I'd seen in a while, and it was gooood too. I  will never eat something like that again here. I couldn't take a pic cause right as I was taking the pic my cam died. 

On friday we woke up at 2:30 and rode in a bus for 4 hours to a multizone in Tegucigalpa. It  was all day and I couldn't understand anything. I fell asleep during the meeting.  I woke up to all the other missionaries laughing at me. About 4 other kids fell asleep too. I got to see Elder Bowen and Briggs, but sadly not Elder Lars. 

We had a baptism scheduled and ready to go I'm  talking font filled bruh this week. We just needed to interview the girl. We waited for her at the church but she never came,  so we went to her house and she wasn't there. Her sister said she ran away to Tegucigalpa. Dang. I was excited to have my first baptism. 

I had the most uncomfortable dinner appointment at a member's house last night. The food was good, but there was this meat. I didn't know what it was but I had to eat it. I put a big peice in my mouth expecting some normal stuff you know, but no. It took me about 3 to 4 minutes to chew and swallow the first bite. It  was sooo awkward because everyone knew I had been chewing that bite for ages. I was sweating and really uncomfortable. I was sitting right next to the dad who grilled it too. Man I'm  glad thats over. 

I thought I  better share a scripture with you guys so here it is . 2 Nephi 10:23-24.  Basically what I got from this scripture is that we have a choice--the winning team or the loosing team. The gospel never loses. I think this is why people who live the gospel are so happy,  because they are living knowing that in the end they will win. Alright guys,  have a good day. and also have a great day! peace!

Elder Sullivan

A Week of Adventures

Hola amigos, 

This week's email is gonna be a bit different. I´m separating it into mini stories that happened this week! Hope you guys enjoy!

Upgraded Pillow!

Not sure if you guys know but I was sleeping on the worst pillow I´ve ever used in my life for the first week in the field. BUT, I was shopping last P´day in the Colonia and I found a real Pillow!! My comp. and I lay down in the middle of the store to test it out. That just added to all of the usual staring. I mean I'm  the only white guy for ages out here, and plus I'm  a missionary. Some lady was following us after that because she thought we were up to something. I was walking around holding a big pillow, a bag of chocolate milk, and some body wash. 

Deathly Dry Cleaning

My comp. and I didn´t want to hand wash our clothes on P´day. Entonces, we took our clothes to the dry cleaners. It  was really cheap. I was actually expecting a decent job,  but they straight up destroyed my clothes. My pants are shrunk and wrinkled soooo bad. They didn't even smell good man. I'm  gonna stick to hand washing from now on.

Taliban!!!

We were walking back to our house after a long day of work. It was very dark. Out of nowhere a guy with a Taliban hat comes out of the bushes with a big gun and starts pointing and yelling at a group of people across the street. I was so sketched! All the people were running, but it turns out he was just kidding and trying to scare his friends. Phew.

Sung a Hymno to Jose

This was a little creep. I´m Serious! After a good lesson to one of our best investigadors, my comp pulls out a hymn book. Oooo I knew this couldn't be good. My comp was like do you want to hear a sample of a song from our church. the guy seemed creeped, but was like sure I guess,  so we sang. Just me and my comp,  for a lloooooong time man. Straight up 4 verses bro and we were really bad. It was really awkward. Ha. Ummm. Gulp.

Rainstorm from the Siths

We finished our last lesson of the day. It was really dark. We were also 2-3 miles away from our dinner appointment, so we started walking. It was chill but the wind started to pick up, like really man. The dust was flying in our face. We started running. It was too late. Instantly it was pouring. The streets were muddy and the water was up to the bottom of our calfs. We made it to our appointment,  ate dinner, drenched their house. It was still pouring on the way home. We got home and showered in our clothes because who cares man,  we basically just went swimming bro. Peace!

Soggy Handshakes

There´s this girl that feeds us dinner every Wednesday. She´s a less active and  she´s obseeessssed with all of the missionaries! In  her house she gets pics with every missionary and frames it. She´s what we call a guiper, a flirter, and one thing that all guipers do is give you the soggiest handshake of your life! I dread them. It's  like holding a dead fish bro. 

Raymond MoneyMaker!

We were contacting. My comp got a call on his phone while we were in between houses. The guy spoke English! He  was really racist and just because my comp has an accent he assumed he couldn't speak English and refused to speak with him,  so I talked to him. He was like I live here in Catacamas and I need to get incontact with my old LDS bishop from Tennessee,  but I lost his number! Anyway, I  was like bro we can try but we don't even have internet so you probably have a better chance of finding him than us. 

People call me Vanilla!! all the time and Hay Gringito!! 

I am the DEVIL!!!

Okay. highlight and lowlight of the week. Gulp. We were walking to our first appointment of the day. About 1 minute away from our house we hear a guy yelling. He was pretty far away. He was like (in Spanish) I am the Devil!!! I will Bleeepen Kill you!!! My comp and I started walking fast. I wasn't that worried cause he was clear back there on the dirt road. We were speed walking anyway and then we hear louder faster footsteps. We turned around and the guy was hauling and he wasnt running normal. He had literal Mission Impossible running form. We were sketched, but we knew we couldn't out run him so we let him catch up to us. He stopped so fast right in between us and started just walking casually inbetween us. I wanted to laugh. Haha you guys know me. Anyway he said some stuff I didnt understand. and then he shook my hand, but he shook it super hard and like pulled me into his chest. He started swearing and stuff and making fun of me. Then he was like  I have killed four people so don't mess with me!! My comp was like tranquilo man, but he grabbed him too. THEN!! BRO!!! You won't believe this man!! He lifts up his shirt and pulls a massive machete out of his pants!!!!! I was like the song, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum , RUN. and I ran  away really fast cause I mean who wants to get stabbed. My comp just stood there and wasn't running so I stopped and waited for him. Eventually the guy was like I will kill you both unless you give me your watches. So we did. He swore some more and then was like alright and walked away.

Split with Obando 

I went contacting with another missionary in the district,  Elder Obando. He doesn't speak English so it was good practice. He's a cool guy. He's a convert and used to drink and smoke and stuff. He has a tatoo too. Anyway, I contacted with him for a few hours and he made me teach a lot of the lessons but it was goood practice. 

Creepy Prayers

So the prayers here are different bro. most of them start out with buenas tardes or gracias padre and stuff like that. Anyway,  this Sunday we went to a stake conference sort of thing in Juticalpa about an hour bus ride of death away. It was in  a weird place. There was a bar in there and the cleaning ladies were just mopping the floor during the talks. We didn't even take the Sacrement. The guy who said the opening prayer  started with buenas tardes and then said soome weird stuff. His prayer was more like a talk because it was literally 4 minutes long man. Also one more thing. People cannnnnt sing here. at alll. man. Like they had a mini choir there with  10 really old ladies and they were soooo bad.  I'm  sorry,  but I was laughing pretty hard during that. Hahaha. 

Bones and Spaghetti

Man I had to force this meal down. It was some alright rice (best part of the meal), some cold potato salad, dried bananas that have no flavor whatsoever, they tasted like potatoes, and the worst part...some chicken, mostly bones maybe a tad of actual chicken,  but it was covered in like Spaghettios  or something and they were cold too! Awwww man, I  just wanted to dump my plate to the dogs sooo bad,  but my comp made me eat all of it!!!! 

Alright,  phew!  That's  enough stories for today kids. Thanks for reading. I´m doing great even though time is going by slow. I still can barely understand what people are saying, but my Spanish is improving a little bit every day. The work is hard and sometimes boring,  but I push through it. It's gonna be easier once I pick up the language. Not really any big spiritual experiences this week,  but I'm  definetely learning a lot more for myself about this gospel.  I hope you guys have a good day! and also have a Great day! Peace!

Where am I?

Elder Sullivan with the Mission President and his wife.   

Hey guys,  it's been while and a lot has happened in that time. I'm doing good out here in Honduras! It's definitely going by slow, but I know it will speed up in a few weeks, I think. Anyway, the flight here was so sketchy but I made it. It's beautiful here! 

I went to the mission home first thing and met the mission pres. He only speaks Spanish though, so my interview was a little bit of death. I met my new comp. His name is Elder Valadez. He's from Mexico and is 19. He's  super chill and guess whatt?  He speaks English!!!

 I will be here in the Catacamas area for 3 months during my training under my Jedi master. It's 4 hours away from Tegucigalpa and it's pretty dope. There are mountains surrounding me, but it's flat in between. It is  a pueblo area, which means there's a bunch of cute little houses aronde and the roads are dirt. My house is 1000 degrees at all times and it has a prison door in the front. The people here are reeaally nice. Every night outside our house there are some crazy evangelical  preachers that yell to a bunch of people so it's a little hard to sleep sometimes. 

I don't  understand  much of  anything people say to me and I answer a lot of questions wrong, but people always think I'm from Spain because my accent is pretty good. I sleep on a mattress on the floor and luckily we have fans that we plug in by our beds. I take an ice cold shower every morning.  We have a pet spider in our shower. He is always there to say hi to us. 

I've  been learning a lot out here, pretty fast too. I can contact and teach some parts of the lessons. I actually asked two people to be baptized and they both said yes!!! We don't get bikes, so we have to walk a tooon. The food is pretty good,  except I filled up on Oreos before a meal and I had to eat  dinner right after at a member's house. Death mistake. We stayed there for a loooong time so I could finally finish my meal.  It was embarrasing. I kind of wanted to sneakily throw my food to the chickens or dogs that roam the streets here. I've  been eating baleadas, tacos, chicken tenders,  chocolate milk, and soda. 

Some sketch thing happened. We were getting a taxi to get here in the first place to Catacamas. We were walking in Tegucigalpa, with my suitcases,  in our church clothes  (in the most ghetto place you've ever seen) looking for a taxi. Some bro comes skidding in, hops out of his car  without a shirt on, and starts throwing my bags in, so we just let him take us. 

Also, we locked our keys in our house so we said a prayer and about 2 minutes after a dude came and opened the door to the complex. Our door is another door after that. We were sketched because we didn't want to sleep on the road. We said another prayer and the same dude comes out with a flashlight to help us see into our our house.  We grabbed a long stick and stuck it through the window and pushed the lever open and got in. Apparently that guy is only at his house once a month.  I think that was a miracle. 

I've been drinking water out of bags and chocolate milk too ha, ha. It's  actually really good. Maracuja is the best juice I've ever had in my liffe!!! Tons of people turn the front of their houses into little store snack shack things called pulperias,  and that is their job. I buy a lot of stuff from there like malteadas de leche, or chocoleyde,  to be specific, and chokies-- chips o' hoy bacically. 

 It's crazy how people live here. It's sooo hot, hottest place in the mision. A lot of people don't have doors and there aren't any street signs, so we have to remember certain objects to know where we are out here. Everybody rides motorcycles here and they haul and honk a lot to make sure no one runs in front of them. Also,  I can finally buy a pillow today! I've been living off a pequeno, ratty pillow I  bought on the first day in the nastiest store alive!

Well,  I had to randomly go up in sacrament meeting and talk for 2 minutes with no warning. I just said some stuff about me and bore my testimony and it went good. We have an investigator, Nayeli. She's 17 and has a baby. We invited her to go to church because if she goes she can be baptised. She didn't show up, but my comp said a prayer to himself and a few minutes later she walked in. Man, the Lord is blessing us out here.  I forgot to say, but in the night the power in the city randomly just goes out and its soooo sketchy. It reminds me of that one movie. 

Anyway,  I want to share something about happiness from the Liahona this month. The only way to find true happiness is through the gospel. Happiness comes to us when we least expect it, so we always need to be striving to live like Christ and the Lord will give us happiness. I don't think God intends to give us happiness 24-7 because we need some unhappiness to appreciate the good. Read Mosiah 2: 41. It's pretty good. This life is a quest for eternal happiness and the only way to achieve it is through the gospel. Something different happens every day and I'm excited to see what's next for me out here. Loove you guys! 

Elder Sullivan

The Black Plague

Hola my wonderful amigos! One more week to go in the CCM! This past week was great! A mix of spiritual and funny experiences as usual. I'd like to talk about pillars of faith first. We all need to have many pillars of faith in our lives, so that if one crashes down the building is still up and we can rebuild. 

I found a new word that is only used in Honduras-- "Macizo." If you say it to anyone from there, they will go nutz! I have learned this from experience. I asked them what it meant and they said it's the same thing as cool or swag, or any other word along those lines.

 I've been reading the Book of Mormon in English. I've truly been focusing myself and trying to get the most out of it that I can. I used to just read, but now I try to study it. My Spanish is as good as it's gonna get before the field. I just need to immerse myself fully in the language to learn the rest. I know it will be hard, but it is necessary. So you guys might already know this, but right outside the window of my dorm is a night club and it was bumpin on the night of the fight--Floyd v Mcgreg!  

We have about 2-3 hours every morning for studying. It's crazy for me to say this, but I love that time now. I'm  able to read the scriptures and study up on the language, and overall improve my knowledge of the gospel. I've been ballin out everyday. I'd say I average 30 points a game. 

Anyway, Monday was crazy! I would say 3/4 of the CCM had diarreah and some were puking. I'm included with the first part, so Monday was a joke. We slept for most of the day. We have a big dude in our district, Elder Solomon. He had it bad. He would stand up in the middle of class and start sprinting to the bathroom! The kid who had it the worst went 51 times in one day!!!!!! They set up a doctors appointment for him. I feel so bad.  We are still recovering from it today. I've been seeing pics of my mish lately and it looks dope. It pumps me up and makes me want to get to the field already! I'm scared for the field, but I'd rather be there than here in the CCM. Anyway,  have a good day and also have a great day!!!

Hmmmm........Pretty normal man

The Elders playing a game of hacky sack in their soccer jerseys

This week was kind of slow. Nothing crazy happened, it was suuuuper normal. So I was pretending to be an investigator with one of the Latinos and it was going good. She asked me to pray at the end, so I did. I was trying to act like an investigator and seem like I didn't know how to pray that well. I said  "Please bless me with some good blessings," (in Espanol) and I'm pretty sure she though I was serious.  She laughed at me after for a while. 
I had to teach the law of chastity yesterday, ha, ha. It was hard. I'm reading the Book of Mormon again, in English, because I figure if I am asking people to read it, I should too. I've been hackysacking every night with Elder Hill. It's pretty fun. There is an Elder here from Desert Hills who I play basketball with. We also got a new district leader this week. I've  been having good conversations in Spanish with the Latinos and my Espanol is getting way better. Some things I say in Espanol only now because I know them better, like perl, si, ousted, etc. I'm leaving for Honduras in 2 weeks, but I'm not sure what day.  I'm stoked for the field!!!

BUUUZZZZZZZ

Elder Sullivan and his companion, Elder Larsen 

Hola mi amigos! Sorry I couldn't email yesterday. The wifi was broke somehow. Anyway, I'm just rollin around chillin, same day everyday. This week was the best by far though. We taught a REAL less active member this week and we got her to attend church! I've gotten to the point where I don't need any notes when I'm teaching and it's way less stressful. I'm learning a lot cada dia. 

All of the old "3 Weekers" bailed and new kids took their place. About 50 Latinos and 20 whities. Most of them are chill. Two of the whities got shipped from Provo's MTC and got put into my district. I haven't gotten to know them yet but they seem dec. We moved our classroom upstairs and the room is so cold, I can't take it! I just leave my jacket in there now. We also got the privilege  to watch 2 live devotionals from the Provo MTC,  Elder Ballard and Elder Anderson. I had to give a 45 minute district lesson which was pretty death, but I got that out of the way. Life is great! 

All of the Latinos are in love with my floral ties! Everyone knows I have a ton, so when the Latinos go looking for them everyone refers them to me! I haven't given any away though, I'm holdin strong ya gibbs. P-Day was the best day on the mish so far. We attended the temple again. I took my usual 5 minute celestial room nap and that got me feelin good for the rest of the day. After that we took a bus through the city to the zoo! It was just like Star wars there! I'm serious! You know the planet with the wookies and ewoks? Well, there were those circle platforms high up in the trees with monkeys going ham on them. I saw  lions, tigers, gorillas, bears, snakes, birds, hippos, giraffes, everything you can think of, even some cute penguinos. 

After the zoo we hit up a dope little market with a lot of homemade things. I bought a hacky sack for 5 Q which is only about 50 cents and it was soooo worth it. Then we went to a 5 STAR RESTURANT... and it was called Wendy's! In front there was an armed guard with a shot gun. It was huge and so nice inside!  All of the main fast food places like McDonalds, Taco Bell, etc. are massive with armed guards surrounding them, I'm talking two and three stories with play places and everything. I'm guessing fast food must be for the high class people here or something. The food is 1000 times better than any American Wendy's. I bought 2 value meals for 32Q and I got my order before I even sat down! You know what time it is gllaaaa, git, git, git!! 
We totally upgraded our room. We went on a mission and we ended up with 2 more fans, new blankets, and I put some pics on the wall. I've been gettin tight with a few guys in my district.  Elder Hill, he's a tall soccer player who reminds me of Ethan Carrol,  Elder Bowen smartest kid I've ever met and the funniest, my companero Elder Larsen of course, and Elder Fletcher, Larsen's best friend. 

I bought this weaved skinny tie from the store that comes to the MTC and everyone has one, SO GUESS WHAT!? I cut off the tip and folded it in, sewed it together and turned it into a doooope sock tie. Everyone digs it. I got a haircut today but it was sketch. I went with my district. The first guy that got his haircut, Elder Ficklin said "solo lados," or, "only sides please,"  and the haircutter cut the sides, but then whipped out his other blade and just buzzed the top off!! I was sketched because I was 3rd in line. Then Elder Hill went up there and said  "solo lados poooor favor, " and after he got his sides cut the hairstylist bro pulled out his blade for the top. Elder Hill was like "gracias, gracias,"  pretending like the haircut was done and bailed. It was my turn and I was like "Yo quiero el mismo como Elder Hill, por favor,"  same as Elder Hill, and luckily it worked,  so my hair is lookin pretty dope if you ask me. That's about all I have to say ya gills. OH, shout out to my homie Asher Layton reporting to the Provo MTC today. Peace out guys! I love you all!!!

Coffee

Hola amigos! "I'm back and I'm better" - James Harden. This week flew by, at least compared to last week! They restocked the choco cones today too, which automatically makes today a good day. I have progressed in my knowledge of the gospel and the language. This week has been full of mostly funny experiences. Before I explain those I'd like to share some changes I've noticed so far here in the CCM. One of those changes is muy malo. The meals are progressively getting worse! I'm talkin hot dog beans and watery eggs in the morning. Gulp. 

I have learned to pray, bear testimony, invite to baptism, and a lot more in Espanol. I can pretty much say what I want in Spanish, it just takes me a while to think of it in my head. Now let's get on with the funny experience I had. My companion and I prepared a lesson for one of our brand new fake investigadors, at least we thought we had a lesson planned. When we knocked on his door (classroom) he took like 2 minutes to answer the door. When he answered we introduced ourselves and asked him some questions. He started speaking soooo fast! If we don't understand a question we automatically pretend we understand and say "si," but apparently the question was,"Would you like some coffee?" We said yes and drank it. We thought he said agua. (It was actually water by the way. It was just a test). We continued our lesson and out of nowhere he blurted out another question.  Of course we didn't understand so we said "si." The question was, "Is it okay to have 7 wives?" We then got kicked out because he said he had a party to be to. He explained it all to us after and we felt so dumb. 

I've been balling out with the Latinos and we chill with them a lot now. One of them is from Argentina, one is from the Dominican Republic, and the other two are from Ecuador and Chile. 

I can understand Spanish much better now and I'm progressing fast. On Sunday we listened to another Elder Holland devotional specifically for misionaries. It was a real pump up for me. It convinced me to savor every minute of my mision and to go home with no regrets. After 24 months of course. Overall I'm doing great! I can't wait to get out to the field and serve the people of Comayaguela, Honduras. Feel free to send me emails! It will make my day. Also pics/vids would be dope too! Thanks for reading this. I love you all! Have a good day, oh and also have a great day my amigos!