Mason's Letter -- February 26, 2011

Hey familia,

Hey so this week was change week. So it was really fun at times and also really busy. On Monday we just prepared everything for the new missionaries to come in and then we went over to our convert's house in El Carmen to watch a church movie with them and they made us some baleadas. Then the buses passed by the house for us at like 6:30 pm and we headed over to the airport to wait for the new missionaries. We waited there for awhile and bought them some food for when they arrived. They finally got all off the plane and through immigration at like 9:45 pm. So we just took them all to the houses of the President and the secretaries and the nurse to sleep. They all seemed pretty cool, always nervous and a little lost though.

On Tuesday we picked them up really early and took them to the President's house to eat breakfast. We then helped President cook some stuff and took them over to the mission office to be trained on some stuff. So we had to talk to them about the special mission rules (no caffeine, put the line in your hair, things like that). They had their interviews with the Pres, then we took them to a park to do some contacting. My comp and I (no we didn't have a change, so we'll be together for 4.5 months like Elder Brown and I) went with a few sisters to contact. One of the sisters is like 35 years old and is from Nicaragua. She is way mature and stuff haha but she is really smart and isn't shy so that's good. There are only a few sisters from the states and once again not one single American elder. After the park we took them back to the Pres's house to eat an awesome typical Honduran dinner. They were super tired after all that.

On Wednesday we did the change meeting. Pres asked me to film it on my camera this time so I did haha. But the changes went good. The sisters' changes were super crazy because all of the old sisters went home and a bunch of new ones came. So we had to put brand new sisters with sisters that only have like 2 changes in the mission. It was pretty exciting. Also we sent one sister to Roatan. It's like the first time ever anyone has ever started on the island. Also I was way excited about the new zone leader in San Pedro. His name is Elder Andersen and we brought him here to SPS to get things going. This zone has been a bit down lately and he is like the best ZL we have and he's way cool. So now he is living with us in the house. So in the house again we are 3 gringos and just my one Latin comp. I feel bad sometimes because we sometimes just joke around in English... but my comp needs to learn right? haha no but it's all fun and games. Also they played a prank on my comp the other day (everyone likes to mess with my comp because hes super strict) so they put his name tags in the jello that grandma sent me hahahaha. So he got in there to get out something and he saw it, and we all thought he was gonna get mad, but he actually loved it.

So after changes we took the old missionaries to eat and all that junk. While they ate we went to TGI Friday's (why not the mission was paying that day right?) haha so that was good. Then they went to buy some souvenirs and then to the Pres's house to do their final interviews and stuff. It was really boring and I don't enjoy taking them everywhere cause at that point they are all so ready to go home that all they talk about is home and what they are going to do at home. After that we went home and had to get up super early on Thursday at 3:30 am to take them to the airport. I was glad to see them leave finally and we got back home at like 8:30 am. Later we went to our investigator in El Carmen and we put the baptismal date with him for the 12 of march! So that was exciting as well. He has really changed a lot.

On Friday we went to the zone Valle de Sula to do some more training stuff. Then we went in the afternoon to the zone of La Lima to do some baptismal interviews. Their zone has 32 baptimsal dates this weekend! they are going to do a super baptism with the whole zone and will baptize them all in the same chapel at the same time! So that is really cool. The mission is finally starting to baptize more and more. we feel like we are finally starting to get things going here. We are really happy and excited about it all right now. This month we should end with 250 or more baptisms. The goal is 300 to 350 every month, but like I said we are starting to get there finally.

Well I hope everyone has a great week! I love you all!

Elder Mason Cardon