Comayagua: Week 6 hospital, segundo bautismo, y conferencia general!

First of all, don't worry about the hospital part, on Tuesday we had to go because Elder Bingham's hip and knee were hurting really bad. But the hospital was awesome! it felt like america haha, it was all AC and all of the doctors could speak English. But yeah, apparently Bingham has been going without his ACL for quite a while now in his knee. He got a shot in his hip, and we were commanded to be on 4 days rest, which low-key kind of sucked. 

Although I did get to study a lot! Including this, which is D & C 21:5, which talks about how the saints should regard the prophets words as if they were coming from Christ himself. And this next week, we will get to hear from the prophets and apostles!!! I am so pumped! And I know that the words they will say are truly inspired, and that we should abide by everything we hear and feel, especially on the promptings we feel from the Holy Ghost.

But yeah, it was kind of a slow week, and the only way we could get around is paying for a taxi, so we could only get to a couple of investigators a day. (taxis are like 50 limps for a ride. its not a lot, but it adds up haha). 

But yes, we got the opportunity to baptize Jerson, a 12 year old from that family in that picture last week! He and his little brother are like foster kids, and we called his mom who is in the states, and we got permission to baptize him. Jerson is actually really smart, and it was really fun to teach him and answer his questions (he really liked to ask us a bunch of questions). But yeah the baptisms were great, the hermanas' investigators wanted me to baptize them so I am dressed to baptize too.

Also, Maribel is looking like a good convert, she has started to hang out with the adultos solteros, and I think she is making friends, which is good. 

I am really thankful for the opportunity to study the scriptures a lot this week, I finished the Book of Mormon again! and I am in 2 nefi in el LdM (2 Nephi in El Libro de Mormon-- the Spanish Book of Mormon). My patience was tried this week, but yesterday was good. Bingham's hip was all good, so we had a full proselyting day yesterday. 

And a member got us pizza for dinner! I love pizza!

My Spanish is really coming along, I can talk and kind of make jokes with the members haha, but I really can understand what is going on, and I am so grateful for that. 

Thanks for all of your prayers and thoughts! 

Love, Elder Wagner

p.s. oh and this week is Semana Santa, so that will be interesting, yesterday there was a parade for palm Sunday, so like no one came to church. Yeah and church this week was not so swell, only 122 came, usually we have like 150. Although we did get 5 investigators to come as we do our roundup in the morning. It is crazy to see the excuses people make up though.

p.s.s.  I forgot!!! I GOT THE PACKAGE ON FRIDAY! it was such a boost! I loved the fruit snacks! And I am saving the oreos and jelly beans so I can splurge on Easter haha :) 

Jerson's baptism!

Comayagua Week 5: ¡Primer Bautismo!

Whats up family and friends! This was a pretty crazy week, it straight up flew by. So on Wednesday I had intercambios, so I went to a little town called Flores, which is about 30 minutes away in bus. There, its only a branch, and they have zero dinner appointments with members, and so I am just super grateful to be in Comayagua with all of the members, and that i have enough money to buy cereal haha. But yeah, I was with Elder Piccon, from Nicaragua, he is almost done with his mission. I think I learned a lot of Spanish, plus I became way more confident in my spanish because i could have a conversation with elder piccon. I still have a ways to go though.

So yeah, Friday we had the baptism of Maribel! I got to baptize her! It was really cool, but the sad thing is that her sister suyapa completely avoided us this past week, and Maribel told us that suyapa doesn't want to get baptized anymore. Basically the whole family of maribel is extremely Evangelico, and they are pretty set in their ways, which was sad and hard for Maribel. but I think maribel will be a great convert, she is already at 1 nefi (Nephi) 15, and she reads every day, which is great, and she already has friends at church.

Another cool thing, there is this really cool part member family that we have been teaching, and we are baptizing their 12 year old kid this Saturday. the mom and dad are waiting on a divorce from the dads previous marriage (they are from previous elders, this divorce has been taking forever) and we have been teaching the mom's cousin Wendy, and she wants to get baptized! But, she is a maestra at the Cosecha church, so her husband doesn't want anything to do with us, nor do her friends at the other church. We will have to see with her. I will attach a picture of the family that we had celebrated the birthday party of the little 3 year old named angel. it was super fun!

 

Crazy: We just left our apartment one day and we met this crazy american selling peanuts! We were like, what are you doing in Honduras? And then he went on about how 2015 is a big year, and how Russia and the us are going to have WW3, and that america will be destroyed. haha and we keep seeing him on the streets selling peanuts, haha he is crazy. 

Happy early birthday to Andrea!! The mormal pics you look great! wow! That will be great if you can get your valley time soon, so then you don't have to worry about it for the rest of the season.

And happy early birthday to you, mom! I hope the del rio kids aren't driving you nuts! Enjoy pink champagne cake for me!

Food: We went to pizza hut this week! and burger king! I love comayagua!

General Conference! Lets go!

The church is true everyone! 

Love Elder Wagner

Maribel's baptism!

Angel's birthday party

Comayagua, Week 4

What a weeek! 

On like Tuesday, we went to tegucigalpa to have the nuevos evaluacion. It was really fun to see all my buddies from the CCM, and their crazy stories and how some don't have running water. haha, I guess I have it pretty good here in comayagua, with running water and a normal hot shower. And we have a member do our laundry for us. 

Anyways, this week we focused on finding more people to teach, which basically meant a crap-ton of contacting and walking. Our favorite method is to ask if people knew a Jose who lived around there, then it is pretty easy to talk from there. In fact, we used that method and this old lady named Lourdes really liked us, and she loved the 1st lesson! unfortunately she went up to teguc on Sunday, but we will see this week if we could put a fecha with her. Also, one day we were contacting for a couple of hours, so we decided to take a break and get some paletas. Anyways, we were eating them, and a guy passes by on his bike elderes! Usually people just call us hermaanos, so when they call us elderes you know they know the church. Any-whoo, he stopped and we talked with him and apparently he was taking the lessons 3 years ago but then the elders transferred. He came to church, and he seems pretty positive about wanting to change his life and stop drinking beer and stuff. We will see with him this week, and hopefully we can talk to his family.

So this Saturday we will have our baptisms for Maribel y Suyapa! Maribel is really strong, I think she will be a great member, she loves church. So yeah, that's exciting, and we found her whole family and we are starting to teach them to. Referencias are so much better and easier than street contacts, we are so grateful for fma hernandez.

Apparently a guy came to comayagua with Ebola or something, so everyone was freaking out and our ZLs put us on lockdown, and told us to board our windows. They all thought ebola was airborne! haha, so me and elder bingham put an end to that haha, so all is well. 

Holy crap menudo. We had the hot soup and I was sweating like crazy, and there are just four huge chunks of the cow intestine. I went for the chunks first, and I was chewing them forever!! They aren't bad, they just are so dang chewy! So it took me like an hour to finish my soup haha.

Still have diarrhea. Apparently Elder Bingham still has diarrhea too. I have just accepted that I wont have a solid poop ever again. haha. 

Thanks for all of your prayers! The field is white and ready to harvest here in Comayagua! We need more missionaries! 

It was good to hear from everyone

Love,

Elder Wagner

P.S. Oh! so our bishop here served in Ventura, CA! and he served in Bakersfield for 6 months! I think he was in the east stake it sound like. He was there when it snowed! anyways, that was cool haha

Animal Friend Pictures:

Our apartment gecko friend!

And a pig friend!

Comayagua, Week 3

What's up guys? It was great to read everyone's emails this week. 

So, we kind of had an interesting week. Wednesday we ate lunch at a members house and then my stomach hurt so bad for the rest of the day, and then we had our appointment with Maribel y Suyapa, and I HAD to use their toilet, and I absolutely destroyed it hahahah. I kept thinking of the Sponge-bob episode where Patrick destroyed squidwards toilet hahah. And then, I threw up. and after the lesson haha I kept throwing up in the street, so we called it a day and took a taxi back. 

The next day was zone conference with Presidente, and it was really good! I was still pretty weak, but we were only sitting down. I actually understood most of everything! So yeah, my Spanish really has improved, I actually know what is going on in our lessons usually, which is pretty nice.

So cool story, we got this reference from the zone leaders who had contacted this pablo in the street, and he was really positive, and he lived in our area. So, we went and looked for a pablo argeta in barrio milagro by the kinder (that's where the zone leaders said he lived) and we asked everyone!! But, no one knew him. so, after about an hour and a half, we gave up and started leaving barrio milagro, but I said a mini prayer in my head ´to just help us find this pablo eventually`´. All of the sudden, a family on a porch started hailing us to come over, and their little kids ran and lead us to the house! We taught the first lesson, and they were so positive!! They accepted baptism too! However, they didn't make it to church, which was kind of a bummer.

 

And the Saturday before church we did a huge trip to like every menos activo (;ess active) we knew to try to get them to church, because it was ward conference. A bunch actually came, and we had 169 people at church! It was awesome and packed! Hopefully we can keep the asistenccia up in the following weeks because they were worried we might turn into a rama (branch). The biggest challenge we have here as missionaries is getting people to come to church. 

Anyways, yeah! I had a good week! So it looks like for sure for sure we will baptize maribel, and suyapa, and maybe their sobrina, braisly on the 21st. This Saturday we are supposed to baptize adan, but he has only come out church once, and he has been avoiding us.

Food: Yeah every Friday after district meeting we go to Wendy's. It is amazing. And the beans have become tolerable. When I first got here it took me forever to chew and swallow a mouthful of beans, but now I've learned how to swallow really quick so that's good, thanks for all of your prayers in that regard. but hey, I get to eat a bowl of cold cereal every morning, maybe lunch sometimes, so I'm pretty happy.

Mom: in thinking about food for my package, I have been rationing my goldfish and my gummy bears that I got from Christmas,those keep me sane. so if you could send me stuff like that. and yeah twinkies are always good haha. 

It was a good week! It is good to hear from yall! The church is true!

Love, 

Elder Wagner

Comayagua, the Beauty 

The Scarlet Macaw-- the national bird of Honduras!

They are very rare and on the endangered list.

Comayagua, Week 2

What's up guys! 

Holy crap I have so much to talk about but so little thyme. First, mom, thanks for the glasses kit, the screwdriver thingy is a lifesaver. And the handkerchiefs. It gets so dang hot here.

So that video was with Tayron, and Eduardo who was taking the video. We did a 2 hour hike up to Las Anonas, where there is a little town with about 20 members, but there is not enough to have a chapel built up there, so it is really hard for them to get to church because it is a 2 hour hike. Anyways, Eduardo and Tayron are RMs, they are so cool and funny haha, and they know a little English, which is fun. Mom: add Eduardo on facebook, I think he friended me haha.

 

So the week started out pretty crushing because Mayra really did not want to get married at all, so she cannot get baptized, so our fecha (date) with her fell. Her son, Adan, didn't have any problems with the palabra de sabiduria, which was great! because usually people here drink coffee because it is so cheap.

 

Other than that, we didn't have much success, until we visited a recent convert named Hermana Hernandez, and she owns a little restaurant. 3 girls work for her, and so hermanana Hernandez told them to sit down for a 20 minute leccion (lesson), and so we taught them the restoration. At first it was super awkward, and they didn't talk at all. But then, the Spirit came when i recited the 1st vision, and they got really interested and started asking questions. It was great! They accepted the challenge to baptism, and Sunday we put a fecha with them for the 21st, because they went to church! So we will be working with them. Referrals are so important, and all the missionaries here say that most of their baptisms come from referrals, not from contacts. So we are super grateful for Hermana Hernandez and her conviction in the Gospel. 

Food: fasting was crazy hard because we sweat so much holy crap haha. but it was good. oh and the other day we ate at this members house and she made us soup, and it was so hot and it was so hot outside! I was literally sweating drops into my soup hahaha.

 

Oh and there is a Wendy's right down the street from our apartment! We eat there every Friday after district meeting. It is sooo good.

Also: I have had diarrhea ever since the second day I got here. so there's that. But it does not impede the work of the Lord!

Thanks for all of your prayers and emails,

Love,

Elder Wagner

The 2 hour hike to Las Anonas with Tayron and Eduardo!

Elder Wagner found a friend!

The random video sent on Saturday by Eduardo!  Totally made this missionary mom's day!