Well kids... Its officially over... GULP well technically there's a week left, but I mean come on this is pretty much my last email i'll be sending as a missionary. It's been a craaaazy 2 years in this country, I've learned a lot and I've seen too much if you know what I'm saying. It wasn't easy at all in fact it's the hardest thing I've ever done mentally and spiritually especially living in a totally diferent culture and learning another language, but I know it was good for me and soooooo worth it. I'm sooo gratefull for having decided to serve a mission. My testimony has grown more than I ever thought it would. I've definetely progressed spiritually and not only that. I feel the mission is the best thing for a young 18 year old looking to prepare himself for real life. In the mission you have so many oportunities to grow and learn and I'm so gratefull for what these 2 years have done for me. I still have so much to learn and to experience but I'm happy to say that my foundation is set and I know that it needs to stay placed upon the rock of Christ in order to have success and true happiness in my life. #Hel 5:12. God is real he loves us. Jesus Christ is his son and he directs this church. I know it's true and Iknow it's perfect. Living the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way to live in order to achieve real peace and happiness in this life and in the life to come.
I'll see you guys soon in that one place. It's been a whiiiille ya feel. I'd say it's time to go home. PPPeeeace OUT Honduras. Thanks for all of the support! For those who actually read these emails I've been sending and for those who have written back love you all!
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The sister missionaries and two of my old companions. The week started off good but then some craaazy protests started up. This time it was different. THE POLICE WERE THE ONES PROTESTING! The cops were burning down their own police stations and they didn't work for 2 days. We were basically living the purge without laws for a while so we had to stay in our house. TThhheeeen my comp got reaalllly sick so we ended up staying in to rest for the rest of the week. We didn't really get to work this week. I believe its very important to have a daily routine, something we do every single day to keep us going physically and spiritually. Exercise on the physical side. Prayer and Scripture study should definitely be included and play a big role on the spiritual side. I have noticed how much better I feel when exercise, pray, and read the scriptures in the morning and it honestly has become something necessary for me to be able prepare myself and to have the spirit with me every single day. I know it's hard to keep a set routine with whatever it may be, work, school, etc. Sometimes we have to leave old habits in order to create others like sleeping in or going to bed late, but I promise all of you that If you add these simple things to your routine you will notice a difference because you will become more and more receptive to the guidance of the spirit and will have it with you more often. Another week down. Just 3 more to go my friends. Time is running faster than a gremlin right now! We have been teaching a lot of good investigators and finding new ones too. I was able to do a one day interchange with one of my former companions, Elder Merrifield. It was nice catching back on old times and working together again.
One of our baptismal dates, Dilsia, went to church yesterday! If she goes this Sunday she will be able to get baptized the 29th of this month! She is very good and we have definitely seen a change in her life and she truly does have the desire to be baptized. We found another 2 investigators. They are two young men that are cousins and one of them lived in North Carolina a great part of his life so he can speak English. They are really interested in the Book of Mormon. We've only read the introduction and a couple chapters but they really like it and we hope to get them to church this week! It's kind of sad finding really good investigators that will probably get baptized in the future but I won't be there to see them but I know that I'm planting the seeds these last few weeks of my mission. And after all they aren't our baptisms they are the Lords. Have a good week! The weeks have been flying so fast I can't even remember what we've done! Honestly the routine is so strong I could write the same email every week and it would be exactly what we did that week. Anyways, Gustavo our baptismal date for the 29th of June has family visiting from Florida. It's a whole family. The 2 parents can't really speak English too well but you can understand them but they have 3 daughters that have lived there their whole lives basically and they sound like gringas!!! It was so fun to talk to them haha.
Tons of bros this week have told me that my accent is really good, that it seems like I', from Olancho or Santa Barbara (two places in Honduras). I'm pretty happy because that's the goal I've had my whole mission-- to lose the gringo accent. I think I can finally say I did it haha. Anyways were still working hard visiting the homies trying to get some baptisms before I bounce. We'll see how it goooooes this week. Me, Elder Young, and our new companion, Elder Stoddard. I'm in a trio now with Elder young and Elder Stoddard from Idaho. Elder Stoddard has 4 and a half months. We were really enjoying the trio but then he got sent to another area in our zone. He'll be there for a week and then he'll come back with Young and I. I will be finishing my mission like this. Only 5 weeks left! This week we worked really hard and found a lot more people to teach. We still hope to baptize this month but we have lots more work to do because our baptismal dates didn't go to church. I'm exited to take advantage of these last weeks being a missionary. Not much to say about this week. It was the last week of the change and we're gonna start this one up fresh. I'm guessing I'll be staying with Elder Young for my last change, but I won't find out until tomorrow. We got a ton of our investigators to church this week so we're feeling good about the new change. Time's going by faster than ever but I'm just finishing strong and learning something new everyday until the end.
My zone surprised me with donuts for my birthday. They also took me to Wendy's! I'm basically sure I'll be staying in my area with Elder Young until I finish my mission based on what our mission president said to us in our interviews. This week we had a normal bolo experience but I thought I'd share this one with you haaaaa. Funny... we were walkin on a hot summer day sweatin as usual and we heard some dude shout from behind us "hey gringos heeeeey gringo!" We turned around and it was a bolo headin straight towards us. He was tripping as he approached us and had 2 mini bananas in his hands. He started asking us to preach to him "the word." One of his bananas slipped out of the peel and landed in the gravel. I just turned around and started laughing sooo hard! My comp gave him a pamphlet and he started reading it but he wiped some of his other banana all over it. He ate the other banana in one bite and threw the peel to the ground. Then out of nowhere he started taking his shirt off, He had scars all over his chest and stomach stab marks and bullet holes. He also had a tattoo of a naked lady on his stomach and one of his stab marks was on the face so he was pretty mad about that, but anyways we just told him the next time we saw him we'd talk more and we bounced. In the market at night it's just soooo sketchy because there's always sick dudes dressed up as girls and they blow kisses to us every time we pass them. It's like a small moment on the strip in Las Vegas. Creeeeepy stuff. We had a great experience with Wilmer, one of the people we are teaching. We have been reading the Book of Mormon with him. We read chapter 2 with him this week and we could feel the spirit very strong. We asked him to do the last prayer in which he asked God if the Book of Mormon was true. As soon as he asked that I could feel the spirit even stronger and there's no doubt that he didn't feel it too. After he finished we sat in silence and I looked him in the eyes and knew he could feel something. I told him to pay attention to his thoughts and feelings as he prayed and read the Book of Mormon. I really hope he progresses. I'm officially 20 guys. I know it doesn't look like it especially cause I still can't grow a beard but oh well what can you do. My district celebrated my birthday surprising me with donuts and a trip to Wendy's where they paid for my meal. It was awesome! A family we saw watching the game outside on their tv. It's been raining here almost everyday.
Eating pizza with Elder Rechis. Elder Chincilla from Costa Rica. This week we were able to go to the temple as a zone! It was such a great experience for me. I was even praying before that I would be able to have a spiritual time. I felt so good, all my worries left and I received so many answers to my prayers. It really felt good going because so much time had passed without feeling such a nice calm feeling as one feels in the temple. My comp and I are very happy because the family we are teaching officially is gonna get baptized on the 25th of this month! It's the dad and his 2 daughters. One is 12 and the other is 8. The dad really has changed and we can easily see it. He always talks about God and his plans of marrying someone from the church in the temple. He really has turned his life around and repented. I did an interchange with elder Rechis from Utah. Daaang that guy eats a toooooooon. Sorry for the short email. Love, Elder Sullivan My last time going to the temple here. They are closing it for awhile so I won't be able to go again before I leave.
This is one of my friends from the mish, Elder Cojax from Guatemala. Pretty busy week. We had a Multizona and Consejo de lideres. We cleaned out our list of people to teach. We left all the people that weren't progressing and we're gonna keep looking for new people to teach. We had some awesome lessons this week and we even got to prest some service painting the house of Gustavo, one of the dudes we've been teaching. This week I got some of the rudest rejections in all of my mission! I don't know if something's going on in the states right now, but people just seem to give us dirty looks lately haha! We were contacting one day and some dude went out on his balcony and started shouting Yankees go home! Yankees go home! Your church is giving money to Trump and the CIA to kill kids in Honduras! Get out of our country! We were teaching a recent convert in his house and halfway through the lesson this old guy walked in and said get out of my house right now you gringos! You don't even believe in the Bible and you Mormons worship Joseph Smith! So we just had to bail haha. I was reading this week in Mosiah 24 verses 10 to 20 about the people of Alma suffering afflictions because of Amulon that was put as the ruler over their people. Even though the people of Alma were very obedient and kept the commandments of God they suffered afflictions. They prayed with their thoughts and their hearts and suffered with happiness and great patience in their afflictions. Eventually God freed them from Amulon. Every trial and affliction that we have in this life is especially for us. God knows us and knows what we need to suffer in order to progress. He expects us to suffer with happiness and patience our afflictions. My time is coming to an end here in the mission but to be honest I've learned more than I have in my whole entire mission in these last changes. I think Heavenly Father is just making the final adjustments and fixing a few things so everything will be dope when I get home. Love you and have a good week! Elder Sullivan My new comp, Elder Young. Had 2 baptisms this week. I.... gulp... Dirigi the baptismal service. Sorry, the Spanish is getting too strong. The girl is named Jennifer and the boy is Albert. I was able to do an interchange this week with Elder Briggs one of the missionaries that came with me to Honduras. And guess what!? I did the interchange in one of my past areas... Tiloarque! I got to see a bunch of homies even some of my converts so it was fun experience. My comp and I have been working super good together and I'm honestly the happiest I've been so far in my mission. We've had so many spiritual experiences with our investigators and we're hoping to baptize more soon. I gave a talk in sacrament meeting on the atonement. I was able to learn and comprehend better the atonement because of that so I'm grateful. I talked about how we need to use the atonement in our lives. Each week we should take the sacrament being a better person than the week before that way we will know that we are applying the atonement in our lives. We can do this by repenting every single day and following the spirit just as the prophet has invited us to do. Peeeeeace out! |
AuthorElder Christian Sullivan Archives
July 2019
CategoriesComayaguela, Honduras Mission
July 26, 2017-July 2019 Email: |