Mason's letter -- October 26, 2009

Hola Familia, 

Well i thought i knew Spanish pretty good...until about 5 minutes ago. I was walking to come here and put in my laundry and then write, when a Mexican elder came over and did a practice contact on me. I seriously understood like 3 words he said. It was terrible! I can usually understand everything everyone says in Spanish.  Maybe I just wasn't ready for it and it caught me by surprise or something. I dunno. 

Anyways so as I said I thought my Spanish was coming along. We did the first lesson in Spanish this Wednesday and we did pretty good. But now my confidence is crushed. haha oh well I guess I needed to be humbled!

This week we got a surprise visit from the Branch President. He just like walked into our room on Tuesday without even knocking so I thought it was Brandon Davis or someone so i yelled "whatsup?!" and in walked the Pres and he just looked at me funny and said hello. So he called Elder Anderson and Elder Rawson to be the new Zone Leaders. It was quite a surprise to our room since like last week E Rawson wanted to go home, and now he's the ZL. But it's been really good and they are doing an awesome job! He said he prayed for an opportunity to help him shape up and the next day he was called to be a ZL. So God really does know what He's doing and I am confident that they are called of Him. So they will do great and I'm excited for them. That was pretty much the only thing that really happened this week.

My referral center experience was a very frustrating one this week. As a district we had a goal of getting the missionaries into 14 homes...and we only got 5. I didn't get one person. We usually have one elder in a companionship waiting for chats while the other is making calls and then we switch. Chats just seem like a waste of time. Elder Jackson got some lady who chatted for an hour and a half. She kind of seemed interested at first, then she just wanted to talk about our lives.  When we said we had to go if she wasnt going to talk about the church or ask any questions, she dropped some serious words on us and those words are now burned into my mind. haha interesting people. 

I got a girl that said she was a "wiccan". I aksed what that was and she said "well we worship the earth, we have gods and godesses, we make potions, cast spells, blah blah blah, we have sacred rituals and that stuff". So obvioulsy that chat went nowhere. Pretty sure she was just messing with me. So those chats just took up our time and so I only got to call like 3 people and they were answering machines. Nice. So that was really frustrating for me, but I guess everyone needs a chance to hear our message.

Yesterday at the Sunday night fireside we decided to listen to it in Spanish. So we went and got some translating headsets and listened in Spanish. I'm not sure if you're supposed to do that but it was cool. Everyone thought we were natives. The translator was not very good. He kept messing up and would then have like 45 second pauses where he would just say, "ummmm" and "uhhh ha uhh ha... no se" Hahaha so it was funny. He was obviously not a native. Everyone thinks an apostle will come tomorrow to speak at the devotional. But everyone was sure he was coming last week so I have no clue. We will see I guess.

We had a Guatemalan guy come speak to us about Honduras because he served in San Pedro Sula. He was awesome. One thing he said was, "just forget that your an American". He also said the food was different but it was really good. I dont know if it was a good idea because he just made me want to get outta here so much more!! All we ever talk about now is Honduras. We can basically see the light at the end of the MTC tunnel with only 3 weeks left. I guess Hondurans talk super fast Spanish and they don't pronounce their words very well. yep... I'm in for a treat, but it will be so cool. I cant wait to get there and just embarrass myself and learn how to speak better and finally start getting down to the real work. 

I have been praying a lot this week for love for the people of Honduras. If I have nothing but love for them then I will be successful. I will work hard and I will give up myself and not care about looking like an idiot because I love them and just want them to have the Gospel in their lives and have Eternal Life.

Well this week was pretty good. a little frustrating at times, but no worries. Everything will work out. The district ahead of us is going to Argentina and are supposed to be leaving next week but like none of them got their visas cause Argentina is being really strict with them right now I guess. So they will probably go state-side. I hope we don't have any problems.

Anyway thanks for everything fam! Hope all is well. I love you all.

Elder Mason Hanks Cardon