Called to Serve in the Honduras, Tegucigalpa mission. July 2013-July 2015

Called to Serve in the Honduras, Tegucigalpa mission.  July 2013-July 2015
"I love my mission! I am so grateful to be here!." ~Elder Smith

Monday, September 9, 2013

I am In Honduras!

!Hola Hola!

This week has been CRAZY!!! I am in Honduras!!! Can you believe that??? Its finally here. Let me tell you how it all went down.

So I left the CCM exactly one week ago today. I woke up at 3:00 a.m. and said goodbye to Elder Anderson. (He is at home now! I wouldn't be able to handle that!) Then I left at around 5:00 a.m. We drove to the Mexico City airport and waited for about three hours, which was alright because there were like a million missionaries around me.  And we just talked and stuff, a couple of times we tried to talk to people, but no one was too interested. Then we flew to San Pedro Sula, Honduras. It was about a two hour fight, not bad at all! I really like flying. We had like a four hour layover there. So we were all just sitting in a circle, not talking in English, just joking around, it was great. But then they told us that our plane was going to be about an hour late, so we waited and then it was going to be another hour late...more waiting.. by this time it was like 6:00 p.m. And we are still just talking to ourselves, although there were people all around us. So they gave us two options at this point, either wait till 10:00 p.m. and take the flight to Tegus then, or they could bus us to a hotel, we could stay there for the night, and then take a flight the next afternoon. We decided to do the 10 o'clock thing, but I had a feeling that we weren't going to be going anywhere unless we started talking to people, so I asked all the other missionaries if they wanted to pray to know what we should do. As soon as we got done praying we all felt like we needed to be talking to the people who were there with us. I think by the end of the night we had passed out four copies of the Book of Mormon, and six or seven pass along card things! It was awesome! One lady in particular, her name was Leslie, I think she might actually let this change her!

We ended up being bussed to a hotel, pretty much the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in! Three DELICIOUS meals! The best beds and showers I have ever used! AWWW it was paradise! I wrote in my journal, "This is God saying thanks for serving a mission!" and that is really how I feel. But I also wrote, "When times get hard try to remember this night." Haha and oh my gosh, that is so true, but I'll get to that in a second.

So we finally get to Tegucigalpa, and we stay the first night in the mission home with the mission president. It was pretty cool! We had good food and it was fun to be there with all the other missionaries who were getting there! Everyone was excited. I remember our first drive through the city! People drive wherever they want, and do whatever they want, it's crazy! But it was beautiful to see the city. The next morning we went to the stake center and had our change, I met my new companion, Elder Glasset! He's a stud, he's like 6'4" haha (like I said, I just get along with tall people) and he speaks Spanish like a native. He has about 15 months. He knows what he is doing, I swear every Latino person I meet thinks he's the funniest person in the world!!! (I just can never understand what he's saying so I can't say for myself... haha) But anyway we found out where we were going to be serving, in, it's in the south! Like four hours south of Tegucigalpa! AND ITS HOT HERE! So we took a four hour bus ride through the whole south part of the country. It was pretty amazing, it is so green here! But we arrived at like 7:00 in the middle of a giant rain storm, and had to walk about a mile to our house, so by the time we got there all my stuff was way wet! But that's normal haha. Our house is nice, our shower is cold, and our sink doesn't work very well.  So we wash all our plates and clothes in the pila, which is like a stone basin in the back of the house. haha it's pretty ghetto, but it's cool. But nothing like the hotel was the first night!

Our area is called Ciudad Nueva. Which means New City, but it's not a city at all, I live in the Jungle! It's awesome! It rains here more in one week than it does in the states in a whole year. My feet are pretty much always wet. But the first couple days we have just been kinda meeting the members, getting to know the area, teaching a few lessons here and there. We are in a trio right now with Elder Martinez, he is actually going to be serving in Mexico, but is just waiting on his visa, but he was here before us so he is showing us the ropes. Its been good! 

Our first Sunday was crazy. The bishop called us up during sacrament meeting and asked us to share our testimonies... haha the other missionaries made me go first so I got up there and tried my best. When I sat down they said that they understood everything that I was trying to say and that It was really good compared to some of the train wrecks they have seen...that made me feel better. Haha

I honestly love it here! It is hot. And wet. And the language is weird. But the food is good, we have this lady who makes us lunch every day! She's the best! Beans and rice with some kind of meat every day, but it's dang good! And the people are nice! They all love me! Especially the niños! I'm not going to say it's not hard. IT IS HARD!! Probably the hardest thing I have ever done. But not hard in a bad way.

I love you all so much! I hope everything is good back in the States. APPRECIATE EVERYTHING YOU HAVE BECAUSE THERE ARE A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE A LOT LESS THAN YOU!!!

Love, Elder Smith

P.S. This country completely shut down when Honduras played Mexico in the World Cup qualifier.  Haha, it was awesome! We camped out at a member's house and watched it because we couldn't have done anything else!

(This is the mission president and his wife, President Carlos and Sister Ana Hernandez from El Salvador, and companion, Elder Glassett.)

1 comment:

  1. Sounds so exciting so far! I love it!! Glad he's there safe and sound!

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