Mason's Letter-- August 6, 2011

Hey fam,

So this is my last week in the office. What a relief! I've had a lot of fun here and I've learned a ton, but I'm happy that I will get to leave and do something different. And this next change will definitely be different. I will be finishing the mission opening up an area as district leader and a trainer. I'm opening Galeras, a place in Santa Barbara. That's the place where we went awhile ago to save the area because it was falling into apostasy. I don't know if your remember that, but yeah now I will be living there.

Pres decided to take out both missionaries that are there because as soon as one missionary gets in, his comp will start telling him how hard the area is and that there is nobody to teach. So then he soon starts to believe it, so we take out the elder that has no faith and put in another that is strong, and soon he too gets infected by the other comp who has been told that it is hopeless. So there have been no results there. We will try it with me and putting in a new elder. His name is Elder Peterson and he looks really good. His folder said he was super smart and president of the National Honor Society or something, so he should be good. We will have fun, and I will pound it into his head that Galeras is the best baptizing area in the mission. So when I leave he will infect his companion, but in a good way. I feel happy with that change. It will be a new experience. I hope we can make a change for the good out there.

So this week was just full of preparing for changes. We have got everything ready and set. When we made the changes we did it really smoothly and finished in like 4 hours. That's like 2 hours faster than last time. We have really learned how to do it and how to focus well and we got the system down this time. So that was good.

Oh, and last Monday I got to go to Tegucigalpa. It was a fun road trip. We left at like 8 am from here and got there like at 12 about. That city is so crazy. It's like super unorganized and we got sooo lost, it's a way big city though. It was cool to see it. Well we got lost but luckily we found a chapel and went in and a whole zone was there writing their families. We walked in, and they were super confused and asked us if we were lost. For a little bit they thought we were really rebellious and had snuck out of our mission. So we took a pic with them and they gave us directions.  It was cool to see them and talk about the different elders that we knew in the different missions.

So we got the elders ID card out after paying a guy a few bucks to let us go to the front of the line (if not we would have had to spend the night there) and then went to lunch with the office crew in Teguc. They are cool guys. But I really wouldn't like to serve there, I like SPS a lot better. So on the way back we got lost in the city again and went waundering around for an hour trying to find the exit, and we finally found it. We got back to SPS at like 9 pm. I was super tired of driving all day.

So that was it with my week. Oh, we have a baptism tomorrow as well. So that should go good, it's a teenage girl who is the girlfriend of a future missionary. She's gone to church for a few months now and we are getting her into the water before I leave.

I hope you have great weeks!!! Love you all

Elder Mason Cardon