They are like small brown beetles. I don’t like them because they always jump in my hair. I guess they just get excited to touch hair of a conche too.

My new companion is called Elder Zuniga, and he is also from Honduras. He is kind of a strange one, but that just makes living with him fun. He talks about his girlfriend a lot and one day a member went off on him and said that she is going to find someone else while she goes on her mission (she is going to serve a mission soon), so I make fun of him for that.  I make fun of most missionaries with girlfriends that are waiting for them because they can’t use it against me.  Thanks Dad for teaching me this! It is pretty great. We found a bunch of new investigators this week, but none of them seemed too overwhelmingly positive to me. Our ward mission leader told us that the secret to missionary work is to always find new, always be looking and focusing on news (He baptized 500 on his mission so I am lead to believe he knows a little bit of what he is talking about). Not sure if I am tired of the same area. I feel the same as I did two changes ago (it is just a feeling of indifference). I am glad I feel that way because many missionaries have told me that they would hate any one of these areas if they were there for more than 3 or 4 changes. I am rocking change number 6. To be honest though, I am not too concerned about where "I" would like to go, only that I am were I need to be and doing what I need to. We did service for a family this week and we hoed there land. I am not too sure how to say it in English. (we moved dirt with hoes in the land that they own to plant corn). Anyways, they gave us breakfast after and I ate my bowl of tamales, rice and beans. I then went back to work and returned. They asked me if I wanted a little more food. I said  a little bit more beans (because you can’t say no). She then gave me the rest of the beans and then asked if I would like some rice with it too. I said yes and jokingly said "the rest too". I don’t know if she didn’t understand that I was joking or just wanted to see me suffer, but she then poured my bowl of beans in the rice and gave me the bowl of rice. I almost blew up trying to finish the food. There are also these bugs that are coming out now. They are like small brown beetles. I don’t like them because they always jump in my hair. I guess they just get excited to touch hair of a conche too.

Love Bret

We also found someone who has a pet monkey

Elder Mecham Had Changes This Week... to Chamac. I don’t know if you guys remember the story of Chamac, but the missionaries where taken out and it was added to San Antonio. They then put missionaries in Chamac now, which are me and my companion Elder Zuniga, a Honduran from San Pedro-Sula. So, more or less my area got cut in half and I have one half and my old companion has the other. we got to hang out with all the missionaries that were going to train or had changes the night before in the Zone Leaders house though. I also went to my first change meeting too. We have found some pretty positive people really fast though. The only problem is that all our progressing investigators need to get married and they feel as though they are not ready to get married (even though they have at least 2 kids and have been living together for at least 7 years. We also found someone who has a pet monkey! I took pictures, but the monkey is dark and it was dark outside and no matter what I did the picture would not come out well. Also a returned missionary came back to the mission to visit his converts and the members this week in Chamac. He brought his cousin and she brought her 1 and 6 year old sons (no idea why, none of them know Spanish). They just kinda smiled and said sí whenever someone said something to them. I am also going to start contacting by chess. i ask people now if there is anyone we could visit or that likes to play chess. I figured that it talking about God won’t get us in the door with their intention to really listen to us, maybe and game of chess (win or lose) might gain some of their confidence.

You asked if I am ok and if things are going well.  Right now it is hard getting  over discouragement and always working. You can have a nice day planned out but it could end up just being a day closed doors, fallen appointments, digressing investigators, and by 5:00, you are just ready to go home and call it a day, but you have to keep working. there is a lot of discouragement in the mission, but it is the one thing that happened two days ago when you had a really good lesson, found someone who gave you hope, or read/heard something that gave you what you needed to keep you going. There is a lot of failure in the mission, but it is the one success that you had that makes it all worth it and gets you going again.

You also asked about food.  The grossest thing I have eaten so far is innards. it is not that gross (counting my blessings) but I would say it is the grossest thing I have eaten. It is a bit worse now that I have had it just plain and not in a soup or something. Also, yesterday I had something (it really wasn’t bad, but my mentality of it made it bad). It looked like wet dog food and tasted like it too (well at least what I imagine what wet dog food would taste like). We ate it with the RM that came back to visit people from the mission and he ended up puking. I figured I would too if I have not grown accustom to the food here. There is also this type of meat (it is like a Guatemalan Meatball) that I puke after every time I eat it.

I don’t mind platanos now. They remind me of apple sauce (don’t know why), so I just think of apple sauce and I can eat as many as are put in front of me. But I am still the biggest fan of eggs and beans with tortillas.

I also did divisions with the zone leaders this week and one of their investigators is into chess

Christine, Thank you, I like the act styled questions. ha

No, the mission is not what I thought it would be. There are problems where I thought that there just wouldn’t be problems. With companions, members, and investigators. I just figured it would be easier than it is. I learned that there is a reason that they call it missionary WORK. It is hard because it is not a job of what you doing, it is about being. There are no breaks when it comes to being something.

I haven’t had any mind blowing spiritual moments, but there have been things when I have thought, no, this wasn’t a coincidence.

I love what you become because of what the mission demands. It is awesome being in a different country and learning spiritually and mentally. You just gain an understanding of things. I don’t like... well, that changes daily.  There is not really one thing that I don’t like, just sometimes I feel like doing something that I cant because I am a missionary. But it is part of the job, it is what I signed up to do.

My testimony has grown, in just about every aspect. The restoration, plan of salvation, prayer, sacrifice, the Love of God, obedience, families. I don’t know why it has grown, it is just a gift we receive when we study and serve the Lord.

My area is picking up now. We have found 5 families and all of them are positive. The only thing that will stop them is marriage because none of them are married and in every one of the families there is one person that doesn’t really want to get married. They all have kids though. We explain to them why it is spiritually bad, but the husbands are saying that they want at least 10 more years to live with the person before they marry them. There are many flaws in that. If we can get them married though, we will baptize them too this upcoming change. The only thing is that this week is changes and I think I will have changes. My companion told me that is a bummer that I will leave and miss the chance to baptize 5 families (it would be about 12 people that we would baptize). It doesn’t bother me at all though. In missionary work I see it as 3 steps. Find, Teach, and Baptize. all of them are necessary steps in missionary work, and which one you do doesn’t really matter, just as long as you are doing your part.

  I also did divisions with the zone leaders this week and one of their investigators is into chess! I played him a bunch, but he recently got a clock so all he wanted to do is play blitz (I don’t blame him at all), but I never played blitz that much so he smashed me every time. I didn’t mind, I was just glad that I got to play for the first time on my mission. It reminded me of home when me and dad played and he always beat me, but ¡NUNCA ME RENDÍ!

  That is a super bummer about Erika, missing part of the MTC is a bummer. She will be fine though; God always looks after the missionaries.

Love, Bret

I forgot you grew up Catholic so you know all about Good Friday.

Conference was great this week from my member perspective. I was able to watch it in English, which is awesome. There is just a different feel when you’re her the conviction in the voice of the person. Especially when you have someone awesome like Elder Eyring or Elder Holland talking. From the perspective of a missionary, it was really bad. We couldn’t get anyone to go. Maybe it was because of Easter the whole zone had problems bringing investigators to the conference. It just showed us what we need to do now in our area. The money thing worked out fine, everyone received money the next day. I am fine with money though, I have to call the money giver person to tell him to take some money out of my account. I think I will have changes this change, but the two week mark is up so we could not baptize any investigators that we find now, only my companion will next change. He is kinda discouraged and board of the area though. It is cool seeing conference in two different languages (when the talk is in Spanish we change it to the Spanish channel to listen to it). It is  a blessing. I am thankful for your  support and love you all.

 Part of Chamac that we found. the chapín in the photo is Mynor. he got back from his mission 2 months ago and is the bishops son.

I am glad to hear the garden is doing so well and it sounds like your primary activity went well there.  I do think the idea for a movie night would be good for the youth and the ward too.  We don’t have the technology to do that here.  I wish we could do that though it would great.   I forgot you grew up Catholic so you know all about Good Friday.  Here it is crazy though. I have a little of the streets during semana santa. In case you don’t know semana santa is Easter, but here, they celebrate it the whole week. The big day is Friday though, because the people decorates the street and dresses up to re enact the crucifixion of Christ. Good Friday is a scary day though. I am lucky and am in the mountains and can work. In the coast, the girls cannot leave that day and there are restrictions for the elders in the coast.

Easter Streets!

The streets for Easter