4 months?!! I Must Be Trippin Maaaan

Picture Christian drew of him and his comp, Elder Valadez

Hola Amigos,


Another chill week in that one place. The weeks are flying by!  I actually hit 4 months yesterday! My training is over and changes are tomorow. I've learned a lot but I still have tons more of experience and growth left for me. I'm leaving Guayape tomorow. My new area will be Las Mercedes in the Zone Country. It's nearbye Teguc. My new comp will be Elder Zapata. 

        Well, we found ANOTHER good place to eat around here. It's actually street food. Some lady and a dude wake up every morning and make the best baleadas I've ever had! 

We taught a suuuper poor dude named Francisco this week. He's about 50 years old. His house has all dirt floors. It's not flat though. There's foot deep holes everywhere but he still has furniture and stuff. There's dust floating everywhere and about 4 dogs that just chill in there with him. He's really interested in the message and I hope that Valadez can have some success with him. 

Thanksgiving was just a normal day.

I had another intercambio con Elder Roberts. He's really cool and fun to talk to. I learn a ton each time we work together. We are two gringos together when we work so things get a little crazy.

We had our very last district meeting. It was a very spiritual experience. Elder Banda gave The Last Sermon about our purpose as misionaries and then we all shared our testimonies. 

Elections were yesterday. It is known for people to die a lot on those days. I was sketched but presidente told us to work normal. We went to a members house after church yesterday and we saw on her tv,  gulp, it was a bro. A dead one. he had flies crawling all over him. He got shot I guess, but we realized that it was actually about 4 minutes down the road from us! We were beasts though and just kept working.

Well, I'd like to talk a bit about prayer. Prayer is one of the best gifts we have. The ability to communicate with God. We can pray anywhere at anytime. We can pray out loud or in our hearts. I think sometimes it's very easy to get caught into saying the same prayer all the time. But actually we should take advantage even more of the chances we get to speak with our heavenly father. He loves us and he wants us to be happy! We should take all the time we need to thank him and ask him too. if we ask with confidence and with faith. He will answer us. 

And if you feel like you aren't recieving answers to your prayers. read in Doctrina y Convenios seccion 6. and 8 and 9. 

Okay guys,  I hope you had a good week last week and I really hope that you can make this week even better than the last! Seeee yyaaaa.

Elder Sullivan

Orange Juice Sounds Nice

Hola Amigos!

Let me give you guys the lowdown on the investigadors we have right now. 

 Celia:
She's super dope actually. She has a huuuge organization for single mothers. She's interested in the message, but she's very busy all the time. She said she wants to teach me how to make baleadas and tajadas!!! 

Bryan:

 He's 14 and fooorrr sure wants to get baptized. He has been going to church and seminary for almost a month. The only prob is his mom. She doesn't think he's ready because he's mean and irresponsible. We talked to him about it and hopefully he can change. We'll see man, we'll see. 

We also found a new investigador named Anderson, who is 17 years old. He's super chill. Also interested. We talked to him for soooo long. We talked about our hobbies and interests. He even gave us a tour of his house. This man is getting baptised.

We have a few others. They all just won't go to church--either they work or don't want to walk there.

Anyway, this week we found a dog. Not any normal dog, let me tell you. He was goin ham on us jumping, running etc. We named him Gremlin. (Watch the movie and you'll understand), but he wouldn't stop following us. We walked about a mile to our house. He followed us every step of the way. We gave him some water and we actually let him into our house because he's a pretty cool guy. We tried to escape him to get to the Texaco but we couldn't lose him. The only solution was to find the owner, so we walked him all the way back to his house (the opposite way of the Texaco) and gave him back to the owners. We don't walk by that house anymore. 

This one eerie night (actually all nights are eerie here) we were chilling at a pulp,  drinking some water bags, and this suuuper poor guy went up to buy something. I just looked at him and forgot about it. A few minutes later he came up to us and handed us both a little thing of orange juice. He talked to us a bit and we introduced ourselves and gave him a little tarjeta. It was pretty crazy. I love the people here. 

Speaking of orange juice. guess what we drank for the sacrement this week?? ORAN! It was reeaaally hard to not laugh while passing the sacrament and seeing the weird looks on people's faces. Also during the prayer. "'Santifique este agua." Phew man, that was tough. 

Well, some spiritualness coming at you. 

I have a book that's supposed to inspire missionaries. It actually works and i think it would work for anyone. I don't have it with me right now,  but I remember something that really pumped me up. It says something like this:

Look to this day! For it is life! Yesterday is only a dream and tomorow is a vision of hope and if you live this day great, yesterday will become a dream of happiness and tomorrow will become a vision of hope. 

I think thats right.

Well, friends have a good day and a great one too. Peace!!

Elder Sullivan

Who Is This Man?

Hola Amigos!!

Que onda locos? Out here chillin you know the usual. I'm doing good.  It's still death hot here if you're wondering. A few weird things happened this week if you asked me. 

          We taught a pretty weird dude this week. His name is Isabel. I think he's like 40 50 years old, but we couldn't actually teach him because he wouldn't stop talking and asking us creepy questions. He was telling us about how he's a man of God and that he can heal people. He says he heals his family all the time and offered to come to our church to heal some of our people too. I was like soorrry bro but I just think YOUR TRIPPING! 

          That whole night was weird because we went to this pulperia nearbye and we were gonna buy some bags of water and a snack but they gave us dinner!!! I was sooo happy and a little creeped. We actually taught them a little lesson too. 

          So Valadez had to do a lot of baptismal interviews this Friday in Juticalpa. While he was doing that I split off and worked with Elder Banda my other mexicano brutha. We found some nuevos but we also visited a less active girl. Not just any girl. She's 15 and has a 1 and a half year old kid. Another on the way too. Her boyfriend lives with her and he's 37 YEARS OLD!!!!! I just think to my self sometimes how does that happen? We woke up in Juti  the next morning and hit up Oh Crepe! again. I bought a nutella crepe with whipcream strawberries and bananas. Dang it was soooooooo good! 

            Another one of our new investigators is a lady, about 40 years old. She has her own single mother organization with thousands of members. She's loaded, but shes interested and she said shes gonna teach us how to make baleadas and tajadas! My two favorite foods here!!!!

           Church yesterday was pretty crazy. We had to bless the sacrement. During the sacrement my comp and I looked out the window of the church and guess who we saw!!! ISABEL!!!! The healing man!!! We were soooo scared he was gonna hop in there and start saying some weird stuff. He just waited out the sacrement and then came in and sat next to us quietly. I had to give my first talk in Spanish! I wasn't even scared at all for some wierd reason. Haha, but it was about 10 minutes long and I think it was dope. After sacrement Isabel stood up fast and just ran out without saying anything.

         Also yesterday on the way home from dinner I saw the biggest pig I've ever seen!!! It was the size of a donkey. The pic really tells the story of my fear. I thought it was gonna charge me! 

Enjoy the creepy pampers babies too.  Have a good day!  Peace!!!

Elder Sullivan

​

May The Force Be With You

Hola amigos,

Otra semana out here in Guayapppppeeeee mis amigos! So guys do you remember how I said there are naked children runnin around everywhere? Well, this week we saw next level creepiness. A naked man  just walking around near all the stores and stuff! I don't ever know what to expect these days. 

        Intercambios this week. I hit up Juticalpa again and stayed the night there with Elder Banda. He has 22 months in the mish so he's really wise and knows the ways of the force. During comp study  his prayer was at least 8 minutes long. He's super humble, but funny and chill at the same time. We even fasted too! I dig that. We contacted a lot and I got to see how a very experienced missionary preaches the word. We also taught a lady that is 99 years old!!! in Honduras?! Yeah man!

         So it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Just kidding. It's the same heat of death everyday. At least I'm keeping my tan on. I'm starting to understand more and talking to people more and to members  during lessons. 

         We went to a multizone in Guaymaca. Eeee. It's one of the nastiest places I've been to here. Actually,  yeah it's the nastiest now that I think of it. Suuuuuper flat dirt roads, no trees. I got to see Elder Briggs though, one of my CCM buddies. He's doing good. 

       Today as a district we hiked to some doooope caves and at the end of the cave there's a big gate. The guide told us that it's a cemetery and that there's a ton of bodies in there, but it was super cool. 

         I can't believe my training is almost over. After this most likely I'll  have to train a greeny, most likely a Latino that speaks no English at all. We'll see how that goes. My comp and I have found some really good investigadors this week. One is named Pablo. He lived in the U.S.  recently.  He's been here for 5 months, but he was super positive. He wants to be baptized. When he said the prayer at the end he said thank you lord for sending these 2 magnificent angels to preach me your word!!! I was like yeaaa man. You know thats right. I'M KIDDING. 

Have a good day my friends! Love You!

Cheque, Cheque

Olah Amigos!!

Hey well if you asked me if I was back and better, I would say "Yeah man!"  Cheque. Another good week out here in Guayape! If you guys didn't know there are cars out here but they are all suuuuuper nasty. BUT I saw a pretty dope car this week. It  was called a Niva 1600 it had a rack on the top and it was lookin nice! I think I'm  buying one when I get back. 

Anyway something really strange happened this week. I never would've expected this, but I taught the English professor in the language called ENGLISH! I'm so used to teaching in Spanish that it was actually really hard. I accidentally  said some Spanish words that I've become accustomed to! In order for us to teach the English prof we have to walk through the school through tons of schoolgirls. The creepiness is actually increasing and I'm getting scared. Now when I pass them they make loud kissing noises at me and one girl was yelling in Spanish "Preach me the word of God pleaaase!" I'm glad school's over for them now. Phew. 

We actually played basketball at the church last p-day with a member and two of the school girls. I took the opportunity to Harden them to death. I broke the bros ankles sooooo hard, he was just laying on the ground. It was a tad bit awkward though. The 2 girls would say we need to rest for a bit and would go sit on the side of the court. They pretended to go on Instagram or like they were texting, but they were actually recording me! 

We had an awesome F.H.E at a members house this week. There were about 15 of us and we were all singing and sharing scriptures. They even fed us dinner after! The dad of the family is such a hippy! He's always saying "todo tranquil man," which is like its all chill man! He's really cool actually!
I got to do my first anointing  of consecrated oil to a sick member. I was pretty nervous, but it went well. Then I did another one yesterday! Also,  I actually baptised a girl this week, but don't get too exited because it wasn't our baptism, it was the sister missionaries. It was really awkward though.  Before the baptism the girl wanted my companion to baptize her, but my comp was already baptizing the other person. She was really scared of me for some reason. Oh wait. I'm the only white guy for ages out here. Anyway,  I eventually convinced her to let me do it.
I hit 3 months this week!!! I felt pretty nasty on Thursday because we couldn't shower. When the power goes out the water doesn't work. I was sweating too because I worked out. The power was out until 5 at night!
We had a multi district meeting on Friday,  pretty much a zone meeting,  but it was dope.  I got to see Elder Bowen and Elder Roberts again! We had lunch together afterwards at this new place. I ordered 2 baleadas especiales. Oh my. They were the best and biggest ballads I've ever had. Beans, avocado, eggs etc. They were packed! I also tried this stuff called rompopo that I got from a grocery store. It's basically egg nog and it was the best I've had! I got to split and go with Elder Roberts for that day. We taught a few investigators, but it was hard because I'm used to the way my comp teaches,  but it went good. Elder Roberts is from Vegas. He's super chill and fun to hang with.
Our investigadors are good, but our problem (and the reason we aren't baptizing) is because they need to go to church first. They all live so far away and don't want to walk there. We even pass by for them, but they are always sick or have something else to do. I'm just chillin though.  I know that if  keep working hard the baptisms will come.
Have a dope week! Peace! Love you all!
Elder Sullivan

Juanita the Baptist?

Hola Amigos,


Heque cheque cheque how is everyone doing this week? Wow! Sounds dope! Well let me tell you a little about my week, Okay? Something dope happened this week. Can i tell you about it? Alright thanks! So, our area is the biggest in the mission and we've gone reeeaally reallly far in only one direction from our house, not sure why. Untill THE DAY. We decided to go the other way. Gulp. Definetly a good decish. We were walking in unfamiliar territory down the main street untill... was I halucina.. NO it was Real!! we saw a Maxi Despensa (basically a Walmart) and another Texaco!!! We now have a new place to hit up for some good food!! We've been contacting over there too and have found some good investigadors. Also in this area we've seen strange things. Massive ants!!! Cow heards crossing the streets, huge pigs, and monkeys too! We even saw a monkey chillin on the back of a pig! 

Oh. It hurts me to think about this. but. we were contacting (not in uncharted territory) walking on a dirt road in a really poor area. We turned the corner and saw a group in the road of about 8 dogs. A lady was walking in front of us towards the dogs. It was all chill untill the lady randomly bent down and picked up a rock. This couldnt be good. She hucked it at an inocent small dog. Right in the leg. It was yelling, not just once, but a constant yelp as it ran away on 3 legs. She threw it soooo hard I wouldnt be suprised if the dogs leg was shattered. Poor little guy.

One night after a long hard day we were eating the usual chicken wings and fries at the Texaco. We saw the gangsta that lives next door to us about to leave. He's cool and has a man bun, just letting you know. He came up to us and offered us a ride home. He's definetly a true homie now. 

I had a very creepy experience this week. One of the creepiest if you ask me. We were in a far area past the Maxi Despensa. A member drove us out there. We were with the branch pres checking up on less actives. We rolled up at the very first house. There was a bed out in front of the house with a yelling lady on it. Her back was injured and it was hurting down to her legs too. There were 3 strange really old ladies there too,  just chillin i guess. We gave her a blessing and we were about to leave untill the 3 ladies stood up and went ham. One of them put her hand up John the Baptist style. They all got on their knees and started massaging the ladies leg while she was yelling. They were chanting some crazy stuff too. I couldnt help it but to start laughing. I mean come on do you know me? Good thing everyone's eyes were closed and they couldn't see me. They had a parrot in a cage too and even the parrot started to copy their chanting noises!!! I was tryiinng ssoooooo hard not to laugh. That moment lasted sooo long. I'm glad it's done. 

This week we visited a high school near our house. We know a member that goes there named Moroni and he let us into his English class to help them out!!! We got to talk in English to the teacher and help the students with theirs. One problem though. The class was all girls except for 2 dudes. About 15 girls all giving me 'the eyes.' If you are white in Honduras the girls go ham, so it was really awkward and anything I said that was even a little funny they laughed like crazy. The class was split up into 2 groups and I talked to a group for 30 minutes and then 30 minutes with the other group. I said ask me questions. They were like do you have a girlfriend, escribe your first kiss, oh my goshshhhh you can play the guitar and basketballl heart eyes etc. We were peacing out until each of the girls pulled out their phones and requested a selfie with me and my Instagram. Dang. We are going there again this week. 

Alright what else? Well, we have 2 new gringles in our district! 1 gringo and 1 gringa! Elder Roberts and Hermana Latimer.  They are both reallly cool and Elder Roberts' name is Christian too! Their Spanish is crazy good and they have about 10 months in the mish. I hope thats me in the future. 

I just want to share a quote and a scripture talking about goals and preparing for eternity. 

"I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don't set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential. When one learns to master the principles fo setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life." - Elder M. Russell Ballard

Study this scripture along with the quote - Alma 34:33 - Every day given to us is a another day to prepare for eternity. 

I challenge you to set goals. 

Smart goals. 

Have a week that isn't bad but is the opposite of that. Goood. Have a good week and also have a good week. Peace.

Elder Sullivan

Papa, Queso Papi Por Favor-and more pics!

Como le va mis amigos (How's it going my friends?)! Great week once again! I think I'm gonna let you know a little about our investigadors in this weeks email! 

Anita - Well, Anita is a reference from a cool family in the branch. She is 25 and has 2 cute little kids. She was originally from Tegucigalpa, but she move to Catacamas because her mom died or something like that. Anyway, I think we're gonna dunk her,  she just needs to attend  the church first. Her problem is she doesn't have water to take a shower so she is embarrased to go all dirty and with her kids too. 

Jose Carlos - He is 18! Dope bro! Anyway, he is one of the nicest people I have ever met! He always buys us soda or something when we come to teach him. One time he even bought us donuts! He wants to get baptized too, but he also needs to get to that one place called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It's just that his mom is Catolica and makes him go to that church instead. 

Lilian y Jose - Cool people if you ask me. They have a little daughter too. She is kind of annoying to be honest because she never stops crying. Papi quero quesoooooo papi por favorrrrrrr. ay ay ay,  but they are really nice and we even helped them translate a letter from their friend in the states!

We have more but I don't have much time to write about them. 

My comp and I have the oppurtunity to play bball at the church in the mornings now!!! We wake up at 5:30 sometimes to play and it really makes me happy. My vertical is actually better than before and i threw down a volleyballll yeyeyeee! 

Some nights get sketchy here. Actually all nights are sketchy, but this one night was next level sketchy. The power went out in the whole city. We hadn't eaten dinner yet and we were starving. We aren't supposed to leave the house when it's dark and the power is out, but I needed food, so  I don't know if I should say this,  but we dressed up in thug clothes and put on hats to look like gangsters so people wouldn't rob us. We even walked like gangstas. We made it safely there and back,  but man I was sooo scared.

I don't know if you creeds kno,  but a few bits of my clothes got deathed in the laundromat, so I took action with a pair of my pants that were annoying me on my calves when I  walked. We know this lady that can sew pretty dope so she hooked me up and turned them into shorts! for only 20 lmps.  That's less than a dollar by the way. 

Yesterday. Dang man do you even want to hear this? Okay, I'll  tell you. We had a birthday party for one of the sister missionaries and 2 members in a family in our branch. They are from mexico. The party was at their house. My comp and I bought a cake on Saturday--vanilla cake with oreos on top. Mmmmm. We partied and had the cake, some jello, some milk, some chicken, and some carne asada. Wow. Great night. 

I think that you guys should choose to have a good day today. If you are stressed, break up the big things into small pieces my friends. Just think to yourself, all i have to do right now is --------- 

Have a dope day and make sure its dope! Thanks!!

Elder Sullivan

Tegucigalpa, Honduras Temple

The best homemade donuts!!

The dog that is a mixture of Oscar and Mozzie