Week 9 - Hurricane Katrina Dos

  Hey hey hey everyone! It is week 3 out here in the great old country of Honduras!

      This week went by pretty quick. Nothing much new, we have just been walking a ton through the mountains and teaching lessons haha. My Spanish is definitely improving slowly but surely. I am kinda at a plateau with it though, so basically right now my only barrier is vocabulary so I have been trying to improve on that aspect. My comprehension is good as long as I focus into the conversation. 

     My Trainer is super good at helping me and giving me cues, Honestly love this guy he is one of the coolest guys in the mission and we work super super hard too. Our area is a tough area for sure. A Lot of MS 18 Gangsters here, but they don't bother us. We are in a pueblo which usually has less success in terms of baptisms, but nonetheless we can still have success if we work hard and are obedient. The Expectiva in the mission is 3 every month, and I think this next month we can do it.

    This Saturday we had another baptism at the waterfalls  because the younger kids like swimming after wards, so we went hiking through the mountains again. Well one of the kids left his 4 year old little brother behind, so we had to walk with him, I just ended up putting him on my shoulder and trudged on. Halfway though the mountain hurricane Katrina hit us. Probably the hardest rain I have been in since I was in Texas. Here we were drenched head to toe in the mountains with wind blowing and a little kid on my back lol. Quite the sight. 

     Later that day we figured out the kid that was baptized forged his grandmas signature for permission to be baptized, so we couldn't confirm him on Sunday which was really sad. But we talked to his, and he was adamant that she signed it, so we think she could definitely be lying, because honestly, there are a lot of lying old crazy ladies here in Honduras. Always make up stuff or make excuses for things, but we are gonna try to get to the bottom of it lol.

No one in the freaking country is married at all which is kinda annoying. Its either the mom got preggo young and the grandparents raise multiple grandchildren, Everyone is a single mom, or the couple isn't married but they have lived with each other for like 20 years or something which makes no sense to me honestly lol. Its not that I think everyone should be married, but if you are already basically spouses, just make it official. And Honestly, people are popping out babies left and right, which is sad because the kids don't have a father in their life. Sure does make me grateful for mine! Love you dad. 

Pues, that's all I have for this week, love you guys, keep sending me emails!!

Elder Butler

Week 8 - Welcome to the Jungle!

  Hola everyone, greeting from the Jungle out here in Honduras!

    This week has honestly gone by pretty quickly. Every day starts off with waking up at 6:25, working out for 30 minutes, take a bucket shower (lol), get dressed for the day, study for 2 hours with the language and stuff, and then go walk around the mountains for about 10 hours straight teaching people about God haha. So that's pretty much my routine here haha, but its so much more than that too, its really humbling to talk and get to know the people here!

    

      My First area is one of the most dangerous areas in my whole mission. Half the people we see in our little pueblo are gangsters, but honestly you would never tell. I have gotten better at recognizing them. Don't worry, for the most part we are pretty safe because we have name tags and as long as you smile and say hello, they don't mess with missionaries haha.

    

       So the Dogs here, lol. There are a million of them in my little pueblo. Kinda sad because they all just walk around trying to scrap for food. Its funny, honestly some of the puppers here are kinda thug. Okay, so my town is a smaller town up in the mountains about an hour out from the city by bus. In this town, there are just random horses that walk around and eating grass in places. Sometimes, some of the gangster pupps bully the big horses. Quite the site haha.

   

     Teaching has been going great. We don't go around contacting, which is just knocking on random doors, because honestly that is not as effective. The recipe for success that I ha ve learned is working with Members and going to the houses of less active members and almost always there are people we can teach in the homes.

     This week I had my first Baptism. We didn't have the keys to do it at the Church, so we got permission to hike out to these waterfalls about an hour hike through the mountains. Very Surreal experience. I baptized a 12 year old kid named Jared. The Kids here are pretty awesome, we talk with them a lot haha.

      My Spanish is progressing slowly but surely. It honestly depends who I am talking with. Younger people are easier to understand than old people because old people usually don't have a lot of teeth and mumble about every word haha, but I force myself to focus and I have gotten very very good and understanding. I would say I am about 80% at understanding. My teaching is getting better every day because we have about 8 or 9 lessons a day haha.

      Honduras is honestly a jungle, you never know what is gonna be thrown at you! Sorry this email is kinda all over the place, I am going to try and organize it better next week haha.

     The Lord has helped me a ton with eating some of the food at some poor members houses. I have had week old spaghetti pie that has sat out in the heat because almost no one has a refrigerator. I have eaten tiny fried perch that have 2 bites of meat on them. Almost all meals have beans and plantanas or rice haha, but some meals are great too! We dont have any stores or restaurants here in Ciudad Espana, so its either buy some chips and a drink from the Pulperia which is a little convenience store, or we eat at some of the members house

Anyways, thank you to everyone that has written me, I love hearing for you guys. I have about an hour to write every week, so I am so sorry if I don't respond every week, but I care about you all so I promise to get to you! Send me pictures, I lost my camera but my mom is sending a new one so pictures will come in a few weeks! Love you all, God Bless!

Elder Butler

Weeks 6 & 7 - Estamos Aqui

   

  Well everyone, I am here in Honduras. Words do not describe the culture shock that I have experienced. I have been in Honduras for a week now, I am sorry I could not write last week, they didn't give us the opportunity. I honestly don't know how I am even going to fit everything I want to say in one email, but I will try my best haha.

     I am not really gonna talk much about my last week at the MTC because it was like the last week of high school, we just wanted to get out of that place. After arriving here, Guatemala City is honestly very nice. there are poor parts obviously, but here is also very very VERY nice parts. We had to leave for the airport at 2 AM last Tuesday, and our flight wasn't until 10 AM lol, don't ask me why.

   After arriving here, just looking out of the plane, Honduras is a whole other world. It is very very Mountainous, more so than Utah because everything is in the mountains. (There are about 3 million people in the city of Tegucigalpa and about 6 million stray puppers lol). 

   I have experienced some very humbling experiences here in Honduras. It is the Second most Impoverished area in all of Central America. I know that Most of you guys are from the woodlands, So am I. I love the Woodlands, and honestly we have all been so blessed to have lived there. If you are ever sad about not having enough, just remember how many blessings you have been given in your life. This whole country is Favelas. Like I am saying even the inner city isn't nice. I have been in the Homes of people that are the size of most of yall's bathrooms. It is absolutely crazy, but I love it here!

    Alright the next part I am going to write about is riding in Buses and Taxis, lol. The First couple of days we were staying in the APs house which is actually decently large. We had to take taxis a lot of the church for meetings, and its probably the funniest and most near death experiences I have had here lol. There are no rules, no speed limits, cars don't give a crap if your in the road, everyone cuts everyone off, its honestly very entertaining. Walking around in the city is so fun because its basically a real life game of Frogger. You have a Busy street or highway in front of you? Doesn't matter, you just cross your fingers, point a finger up to Heavenly father, and just let Jesus take the wheel, hoping that the people will dodge you. Don't walk slower or speed up cause you'll die lol. Its awesome.

    Everything is super duper cheap here. A Bolsa (bag of water) costs about 2 limps, which is roughly around 8 cents in america (The exchange rate is $1:24 Limps lol) 3 Liters of Coke is about a dollar, so my dad would love that lol. 

    My First Companion here is a Gringo named Elder Frodsham from Dallas Texas! whats even cooler is he is the same age as me, but was born in Sugarland, and lived in the Woodlands for the first 4 years of his life, which is honestly so crazy. He is my trainer out here in the mission. Entonces, he is called my "DAD" and I am his son lol. Hes such a cool guy. He played baseball at a big university in the North East in Penn or something, but I cannot remember which one haha.

     Our first area is called Ciudad Espana, which translates into Spain City. I will be honestly with you all, and I don't wanna worry you mom, but the Nickname to this area is "Babylonia" because its pretty much the most gang populated area in the mission lol. But dont worry because honestly you can barely tell. No one really messes with us because we are missionaries and we have placks. So we are safe dont worry. 

      The kids in Ciudad Espana are honestly my favorite. We can be walking and a group of them just run up and hug our legs, they love to talk with us. We are some really great members in our area too, most of the time we have a member with us in our lessons. Its a relatively small area, so there are no cars at all, besides the buses that go to the city. It is a ton of walking, but I love it. The Kids are very humbling to me because I see how little they have, b ut you would never even know because they are all so happy. Its really a joy to witness, so always count your blessings!

      The food here is alright, sometimes its great, sometimes you just gotta down it haha. People basically don't ever use forks, so its either use a tortilla, or use your fingers haha. Our house doesn't have running water, so for the Next 3 months or more I will be doing bucket showers which is okay because we have a little water heater that plugs into the wall. No one in Honduras has air conditioning, but luckily its not  "I wanna die" Texas Hot, at least not in my area right now. The toilets only flush when they want to, so you have to be patient. 

     My companion and I speak Spanish 24/7. I am not allowed to speak English ever unless its to ask about a word. So basically I am a baby that doesn't know how to swim, and my Dad just tied a brick to my foot and has thrown me in the deep end hoping that I can save myself. Its hard, but honestly my grammar has improved tremendously. The hardest part is trying to focus when people are having conversations and keeping up with how fast they talk. I have gotten pretty good for the most part, poco a poco haha. The hardest people to understand are the Old people here in Honduras, because most of them don't have teeth, and mumble everything together, but my Companion can understand so I have faith that I will get there eventually.

     There is a lot of Apostasy in Cuidad Espana. Church is kind of crazy, everyone talks and we don't have a microphone so that's hard. Sunday morning we had to go to a bunch of the younger kids who are investigators in the morning before church and wake them up to come. But the work is definitely moving. We have a baptism next Saturday, and our goal is 3 a month, but this month will be hard. My faith and Testimony has grown leaps and bounds. I have witnessed literal miracles occur that I cant even describe. This is the true church, I am exactly where God has put me, I owe everything to him. God is Good people!

Elder Butler