Hey mom and dad! Thanks for your letters. I really like the pictures. I don't really recognize dad's family. Its been a while. They look so much more mature, especially Alley. I wish I could have been there. I really miss the temple. I can't wait to be able to attend the temple again. It will be so much different. I'm happy that you all had a good week. I'm even happier that Ashley wants to be eligible to enter the temple. I hope her words are as strong as her actions. She is a very special girl. Don't ever give up hope. It sounds like dad is having a rough time. Don't worry, Dad. The Lord is your friend. Talk to him. Pray to him more than you have ever prayed before. Put your confidence in him. If we put our confidence in him, he can lift us up. He loves you, Dad, and he is waiting to hear and answer your prayers. I have had a good week. We had a baptism last Saturday. We baptized a 14 year old girl. It was a good baptism. We had a few investigators show up for the baptism. We are actually having some success here in Jesus de Otoro. I'm excited for the upcoming months. We should baptize about 6 people. Time is really flying here in Honduras. I'm really enjoying being a missionary. My area is nice but there isn't any food. We are teaching a family. They are amazing! They always want us to teach them. The dad doesn't want to get married. The other day I brought it up and I don't think he liked the idea. We could baptize the children but we want to baptize the family. The children are more interested. They all ways have questions and they love to read the Book of Mormon. Well, this week I have been studying and meditating about the Atonement. I don't understand the Atonement all that well. I know it is important and I know through it I can repent of my sins, but I have a question and I was hoping you guys could answer it for me. Why did Jesus Christ have to suffer? Well, I want to share my testimony with you guys. I know God loves us. I know that through Jesus Christ we can be clean of our sins. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know with all my heart that the Book of Mormon is true. I know that Joseph translated the Book of Mormon by the power of God. I know that Thomas Spencer Monson is a prophet. I know that I am a missionary for Jesus Christ, and I know God is my friend. OK, I should get going. I love you all so very much. You are all in my prayers.

Email from Monday, 21 June 2010

Hey family, thanks for the letters. Sounds like you're all having a good time. Thanks for the picture of you all. Dad is a mad man. I can't believe he climbed down off that cliff. I wish I could have been there with you all. Grandpa's family looks good. They look different, but good. What happened to my old car? Are you going to repair it? I would like to have something to use after my mission. My week has been okay. We haven't had much success. Most of the baptism dates we had have been canceled. We only have one person who wants to get baptized, but she is having trouble with the word of wisdom. She can't stop drinking coffee, and we can't baptize her until she stopped drinking coffee. She had an interview last Friday but she didn't pass because she drank coffee. Her family is really funny. Her brother reminds me of George of the Jungle. He likes to run around naked and he fears nothing. The other day he kicked a bull. I couldn't believe it. He is about 5 or 6 years old. Her other brother is really funny as well. While we were teaching a lesson about the restoration, he all of sudden looked at me after I finished speaking and he said "¡Es un gringo!" It was really funny. I don't think they understand the message, but at least they're somewhat willing to listen. Our attendance at church has been low. Only 60 members showed up for church last Sunday. We brought a new investigator to church which made up for the attendance. She seems interested. They are a family of 5. We need to get them married before we can baptize them, but we asked them to be baptized and they accepted. Now we have to seal the deal. There isn't much to eat here in Jesus de Otoro. The members are really poor, so we have to eat at restaurants a lot. I really like this food called baleadas. They are amazing! It is tortilla, beans, eggs, and cheese. They put some sort of cream in it as well. Its called mantequilla. The food here in Honduras is actually descent. Contacting has been kind of tough lately. Everyone is watching the world cup. I guess the United States is doing really well right now. You guys should watch it. Honduras is playing today. They told us not to go to the restaurants because we are not allowed to watch the world cup and the president doesn't want to hear our confessions if we do watch it. They really like soccer here. If Honduras loses, I don't think we'll have much success this week. Everyone will be really sad. I have to go now. OK, I love you all, and I miss you! Thanks for your support.

Email from Monday, 14 June 2010

Hello family, thanks for writing me this week. It sounds like all is well in the USA. Honduras is still Honduras. One of our baptism dates almost didn't want to be baptized but we had a friend of her's talk her out of it and she will be getting baptized this next Saturday. I'm really excited. They made me in charge of putting together an activity for the zone. I set up a BBQ. It was actually a lot of fun. We played ping pong and we ate hamburgers. We competed at ping pong. It was a lot of fun. I took 2nd out of the zone. This week has been good. We really didn't teach very many lessons, but it was fun. I went on splits with an American missionary the other day. I love going on splits with the gringos. They always do the funniest things. While teaching the law of chastity, he started taking about the word of wisdom. It was an accident, but it was funny. I helped the president count the tithing Sunday. We don't have very many priesthood here in Jesus de Otoro. We have to have 3 in the room at a time when counting the money. I thought it was interesting. I learned these 4 steps that we should do when partaking the sacrament. I thought you could use it as well. 1. The first step is to offer a prayer of gratitude. 2. Go to the meeting with a repented heart. 3. Remember the covenants we made at baptism, and those covenants are to always remember our Savior, keeps his commandments, and to take his name upon us. When we took his name upon us, we committed ourselves to do what he would do, or be where he would be. 4. When we do these things we can receive revelation for ourselves or others. I tried it last Sunday and it completely changed the sacrament for me. Hopefully, it will have the same effect on you. OK, I love you all. Thanks for the support that you all give me. I wouldn't be here without you all. Please keep me in your prayers.

This week has been good. We have 5 baptism dates for the 19th of June.We would have 6 but the father doesn't want her to get baptized. We've been trying to convince him, but I don't think it works. They really don't understand the doctrine very well, so we are going to teach with an object lesson. We are going to bring powder fresco and bleach. We are going to teach repentance and how repentance works. When we add the powder to the water we are going to say that is sin and when we add the bleach, that's repentance. I'm pretty excited about it. I hope they understand, or they won't be able to pass their interviews with the zone leaders. My companion is the district leader. I forgot to mention that. We are doing some really fun activities for the members here. We have to do pretty much everything around here. There are not very many faithful members. We teach all the classes except one on Sunday. We did a game night last Saturday. It was really fun. We played all sorts of fun games and after the games we bought soda and cookies for everyone. We tried to play soccer last Saturday, but no one showed up. It was kind of a disappointment. I don't think we'll do that activity anymore. It's been raining a lot here lately, but now that the rain is gone it's really hot in Jesus de Otoro. Jesus de Otoro might be worse than Bakersfield. I'm not too sure. I'm speaking much better Spanish. I don't know about my English. I forgot the word sacrament the other day. OK, I love you all, and I miss you.

Email from Monday, 24 May 2010

Hey family! Thanks for your letters. I am in Jesus de Otoro. Jesus de Otoro is about 30 minutes away from my old area. I really like it. It is really not a city. They call it a pueblo. It doesn't have much. It does have an ATM, so we have to take out money when we are in my old area. It is really green here and all of the streets are dirt. I am probably the only white person in Jesus de Otoro. I am rooming with 2 other missionaries. Their names are Elder Laura and Elder Nasio. Elder Nasio is from Utah. He is Tongan. Elder Laura is from Peru. My companion's name is Elder Chuquimia. He is from Bolivia. He is a way awesome companion. He is really funny, and it's really refreshing. My old companion was kind of quiet. He is the district leader. The branch that I am in has about 120 members and about 30 of them showed up this Sunday. I was a little disappointed. The branch has a lot of problems with the word of wisdom. I gave a talk Sunday about the word of wisdom. I chose the topic because the leaders of our branch are drinking. The first day I came, we made a plan for the members to overcome their addictions. We used it and it seemed to work. The man we taught it to came to church. My Spanish is coming along. It's getting a lot better. My companion and I are teaching this lady named Salumé. When I teach a lesson to an investigator for the first time, I like to ask them to be baptized, so that they understand why we are here. My companion was a little nervous about that but when we taught Salume the first lesson and I asked her to be baptized, she was so enthusiastic that we placed a baptism date. Nobody tells me no that they don't want to be baptized. It's actually kind of funny. The hard part is getting them to pray and to attend church. Elder Clark is a seventy and he came to our mission to teach us last week. Its was interesting. I applied a few things that he taught us. We put on a family home evening the other day, and we invited all of the neighbors to attend with us. We bought chocolates and soda and we watched the resturacion. Only one of the neighbors showed up, but we had a lot of fun! We bore our testimonies after and we played hot potato, and when the potato stopped on someone, they had to stand up and dance the chicken dance. We had a lot of fun. I'm really enjoying the my area. It feels good to start over. Every transfer feels like a new beginning. It sounds like you guys are having to much fun! I wish I could go to the temple. Its been a while for me since I went to the temple last. You guys are lucky you can go to the temple when ever you want. If I was you, I would go to the temple as much as I could. My Spanish is getting better. Ok, don't worry about the flood. I'm am perfectly fine. I didn't even know there was a problem. Ok, thanks for everything family. I love you all and miss you. Keep on writing me!