WEEK 21 - Photos

Elder Baller here with your weekly captions for pictures.

First is my early Christmas present for the fam. Parts of this are very poorly done. Mostly Manolo. I think that Maria is actually pretty good though, pretty solid. This is my early, and possibly my only, Christmas present to the family.
(Mom note: Book of Life is one of our family's favorite movies -- Aidan and Brooke used to watch it together all the time.)

 I have done another photo shoot, because it's fun.

"Thanksgiving Day Smiles"
We'll say that I took this picture on Thanksgiving even though I forgot.

"Unprepared"
I was trying to take a certain picture and I set up the timer and it went off quicker than I thought.

"Thanks, Mom!"
Mom sent me the sheet music to this song and I'm very happy.

"Superfly"
I think I look super super fly right there. And yes, you may have noticed that my hair is very long right now. We didn't have time to cut it last week. You all know that my hair grows super, super fast. 

The famous bridge of Los Arcos (The Arches, in English). On Saturday, we went to give an Hermana a blessing. She has dengue, which is very sad. She can't walk very well and is in a lot of pain. And then, another set of Hermanas that live in Los Arcos asked us to bless their house, to dedicate their house. They haven't been able to find anyone in their ward who could do it. So, we went to another set of Hermanas' house and asked them how to get there. They said to walk down a road to a wooden bridge. And that the bridge would be really ugly. So, we were expecting an actual wooden bridge, like an ugly old bridge. And this is what we found. Those boards literally bent every time we stepped on them and the bridge would move a little. But I liked the picture. All of Danli is like this. Super green and I thought the bridge looked actually sort of cool.

No caption was provided for this, but I'm guessing Aidan drew this. Love it.

WEEK 21 - Q&A

1. What did you do for Thanksgiving? Did you even realize it was Thanksgiving? :)
We honestly didn't do anything different. Except for talk about it. And we imitated the First Thanksgiving when I gave my companion a bag of chips and he gave me some cookies.

2. Do people decorate for Christmas in Honduras?
Yes, there are houses already decorated. Some really pretty Christmas trees and lights in most of the windows.

3. How are you and Elder Alarcon spending your last week together? Any special plans?
We aren't going to really change anything. We are going to spend some time resting because Elder Alarcón told his mom he would get back some health and strength.

4. If you don't get transferred from Danli, will you go to the mission home for changes, or will they just send the new companion down to you?
It depends, if I am training, which I have heard is a possibility, basically everyone tells me I am going to train, I will go for sure for sure. If not it depends -- sometimes you go, sometimes not. I really want to be there to say goodbye to a few people that I will probably never see again.

5. If you could choose to have Norte or a Native companion next, what would you choose?
First, love the super gringo Norte. I would actually like to train a gringo. I would like to have my little white son lol.

WEEK 21 - Week 15 in the Field

This week was excellent.

Tuesday
Tuesday was fairly normal. We went to Urrutia and we machete'd Eidy's house. She is our first convert and she is so great. She has helped us with her sister and her niece. We contacted a reference from the Bishop and it was a couple that are super super positive, they are really busy so it is hard to find them, but we are working with them.

Wednesday
Wednesday was totally normal and I have nothing special to write about.

Thursday
Thursday was.. Thanksgiving. We went to eat a restaraunt that we go to every Thursday because we didn't have enough money to go to Pizza Hut with the zone. :( We went to a new area that we have never been to called San Marcos Arriba. Super great and we found a bunch of new people there.

Friday
We went to Urrutia again. We visited Eidy and talked about the mission because she has a real interest to go and she told us that she is going to go, so that is awesome. We had a meeting with our Ward MIssion Leader and after there was a wedding in the chapel of a couple in the ward. Our investigator was at the church using Wifi so we talked with him.

Saturday
We went in the morning to give a blessing to an Hermana and then went to dedicate some other Hermana's house. The rest of the day was normal, we visited several members.

Sunday
We went to Church, which was fantastic as always. We are planning 3 baptisms for this Saturday. Hermano Salgado, who we have worked with for about 2 months, and our neighbors. The aunt and one of the kids will be getting baptized. When we asked the aunt if she was ready to be baptized this Saturday, we all just kinda sat in silence for about 2 minutes. Whoo the Spirit was strong! After that she just kinda looked at us and said, Yes I am. Wow. Great experience.

Love you all. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Elder Baller

WEEK 20 - Photos!

Again, as always, captions are provided by Elder Baller himself. :)

Pictures of the baptism we had. It was great!

Next, I decided to do a little photo shoot. And I have named all of these pictures.

"The Search"
Basically, I was trying to set up this camera with its self-timer so I could take pictures.

"Happy"
Because I'm happy

"Deep in Thought"

"Water of Life"
Because water IS life

"Patriotism"

"Obedience"
These are vitamins that Mom has reminded me to take about a million times, and I do... every morning. So, for these reason, it is called "Obedience."

These didn't come with captions, but obviously he's playing soccer. :)

WEEK 20 - Q&A

1. What's the weather like in Danli now? Have you ever been cold?
This is kinda funny. It is not cold, but I am so used to the weather here that I am like freezing most of the time. It rains a lot. It is super hot sometimes. The weather here is more bipolar than Utah.

2. Do you have rules about how often you need to clean your house? Does anyone ever check it?
We clean it once a week, on P Day. They check every once in a while, but they tell us when so we always have it super clean.

3. In the photos of your house, it looks like there is a lot of stuff everywhere. Do missionaries leave stuff they don't need when they get transferred?
Yes! There is a ton of stuff that is not ours. Boots. Shirts. Suits. Pants. Tons of stuff that other missionaries don't want.

4. Do you and Elder Alarcon make your own food usually? Or do you make meals together? How do you decide?
We sometimes cook together, sometimes we do our own thing. We like the same stuff so we usually just agree on whatever.

5. How much of the time (percentage wise) do you feel that you understand Spanish being spoken? 
Understanding-wise, 85%. Maybe more. I have basically been able to understand everything since day 1. What I can't understand I can usually figure out pretty quickly. The problem is talking.

WEEK 20 - Week 14 in Danli

Hey everyone, this week was really great!

Tuesday
On Tuesday we went and got to know an RM that got home on Tuesday, Noé. He is super cool and the ward did a little welcome home thing for him. It was great.

Wednesday
We had interviews with President Bowler, which was great. I talked with Hermana Bowler because I had been feeling sick for a few days and she told me to only eat potatoes, rice, bread, and bananas for two days and to have a test done.

Thursday
We did the baptism interview for Astrid on Thursday, we went with the Zone Leaders and she ended up not being there. They had another interview to do, so I went with one of them to Paraíso, while the other stayed with Alarcón to wait for her. We didn't get back until super late, but it was fun.

Friday
Friday we talked with Eidy, our convert, and she went to the temple on Thursday and did baptisms for the dead. She is so great. She is going to take her family names the next time she goes, which might be this week!

Saturday
Saturday we went and helped some Hermanas in our zone move because they were changing houses and needed some men. Haha. We were the only guys there and ended up carrying a ton of heavy heavy stuff. After that, the nurse of the mission called to give me the results of my test, and I have a parasite. Don't worry mom. It is no big deal. Just 2 pills a day for the rest of my life and that's all. No just kidding. 2 pills a day for 3 days and that's all. We had the baptism for Astrid and it was great. I got to do it again, everyone asks for me. My companion says it is because I have the face of an angel.

Sunday
Sunday was normal, church. Church was really really good. I was feeling super super sore all day long, but it was a really good day. We worked a lot with members.

Love you all. Miss you all.
Elder Baller

WEEK 19 - Photos

Selfie - I got a haircut

I was reading the Liahona, and I found Grandma Ferguson. I'm like 90% sure it's her. It was in a section about Visiting Teaching. I wanted to see if you guys think it is too. Weird.

This is a soup we made. It's just water with beans, potatoes, rice, spices and mantequilla. It was way good.

We made kind of like pupusas, mixed with something that's Honduran called catrachas. This was actually pretty good... kind of. A catracha is like a fried tortilla with beans on it. And the white stuff on top is queso -- cheese. But it's different from in the states. And then that is mantequilla on top. The problem with this one was that my companion made the dough and put way too much salt. And we fry the beans in something called sofrito. And this time, we used one bag of beans and one bag of sofrito. So it was way too much sofrito. It was crazy flavorful. We made them again today and it was better. Today we put cheese inside of them like actual pupusas.

The sky here is very beautiful. These are typical houses here. The windows here are all barred. 

The building you see is a house and the building to the left of the house is a tobacco factory. The barbed wire is typical on all the fences here. These two pictures together and it's a panorama. The sky is so different but it's right next to each other. I love the sky here!

This was my dinner Saturday night. Super good. Yes, that is a Coca Cola. I drink it when I am feeling sick. I made this by cooking the spaghetti and scrambling and egg with it. Then I threw it all in a pan with some butter and corn. Mixed it up, seasoned it with salt, pepper and vinegar. It was super good. It looks boring, but it was really good.

WEEK 19 - Q&A

1. What's something new you learned this week?
I learned a lot from the Pearl of Great Price. I finished studying it and I learned a lot from that book, even though it is small.

2. Do they have siesta in Honduras?
No they do not. I think that is only in Spain...

3. What scripture would you like everyone at home to read this week and why?
D&C 24:7-8 My favorite scripture. It will give you comfort in basically any moment.

4. Who was someone new you met this week that stood out?
We honestly didn't really meet anyone that stood out a whole lot to me. Honestly we talk to so many people it is hard to remember.

5. Do you keep in touch with your district friends from the CCM?
I try but it is kinda hard. I have sent a couple emails and received a few but not a whole lot of contact.

WEEK 19 - Changes

Don't be confused by the title of this email. I did not have changes, my companion either. We will be here until December, when he leaves. :( I will basically for sure be here until February.

Tuesday
We found out the changes on Tuesday, not very many people have changes because this change is only 4 weeks. We were going to work in Urrutia but after we visit two people on the way there, my companion was feeling really weak and sick so we went home and rested. I washed clothes and talked with our neighbors for a long time.

Wednesday
We did a baptism interview for a companionship in our district because my companion is our District Leader. It was really good and I was talking with the dad of the two kids that were going to be baptized. At night we went to the church to grab the keys for Thursday and we ended up playing basketball a little bit while we waited. I basically destroyed. ;)

Thursday
We had a district meeting, which was super duper good. We worked in Ocoba, with not a whole lot of success, but the only member that lives there made us Baleadas for lunch, soooo good. The Hermanas that had baptisms on Saturday called us and told us that the two kids wanted me to baptize them. Ummm what. And a kid from another ward that is getting baptized wants me to do it, and another one from a different ward. I have literally never met them so I have no idea how that happened.

Friday
We were doing service for a member and he is building a house and he needed some space so we were cutting down a tree, this guy came with a machete and chopped down the tree in like two minutes and it ended up knocking down like 3 other trees. We were visiting a family in Urrutia that we have baptized the two daughters and are working with the rest of the family, one of the daughters has a little girl and I have been trying to gain her confidence, and I finally did it. Now she loves to play with me, she is almost 1.

Saturday
Saturday was totally normal and nothing exciting happened.

Sunday
Sunday we had church and we had 7 investigators at church. Our first class is Gospel Principles and I was grabbing a bunch of stuff for the class and walked in like as they were starting. And our ward mission leader, who was directing the meeting was like, Then we are going to have a class from Elder Baller. I was like, ummmm, because I hadn't prepared anything. I literally didn't even know what chapter of the manual we were on. But after he told me that our church believes in revelation and he felt I should teach it. Very cool experience.

Love you all. Miss you all.
Elder Baller

WEEK 18 - Photos

As always, captions by Elder Baller himself. :)

Food that I made on Friday. Rice, eggs, beans and tortillas. Tortillas come in a little bag that you buy and they are super cheap. That is about 10 or 11 corn tortillas for 5 lemps (lempira), which is about 25 cents. The rice was awful -- it tasted like nothing. I didn't have enough beans. And I had way too many tortillas. But it actually was really good.

This was my dinner that night. What you see here is what you would call orange juice in a Christmas glass, two pieces of beef jerky and those things in the bag are called rosquios (sp?). They are kind of like a donut, but they're crunchy. And they don't really have a flavor, but they're really good. And the paper that you see there is our DATs that we do every day. That's for our district.

These next two pictures are what happen when you are in the mission. This is a mixture of blisters and blisters with the skin torn off. Our ward mission leader told me to wash my hands in water and vinegar. The ones that were already open, I cleaned with hydrogen peroxide. That hurt. Then he wrapped it like this for the night. My hands are a lot better now.

Selfie of me eating my dinner on my bed. I haven't even made it through one tub of peanut butter yet, and I have about seven. Pretend that this picture is anything attractive. Wow. Let's note a few things. My hair is very swooshed. Wow. I'm cutting it tomorrow because it's really long. My facial hair grows way too fast. I cut myself shaving the other day, so I have a cut. I for some reason, have a worm head, because my neck is in a very odd position. I have very odd eyes in this picture. Wow. Now that I've described it, I can't delete it, but I do not approve this photo to be shared with anyone but the family. (Mom note: oops... I had already posted the pic before I got the caption. And I'm making the executive decision to leave it, because he looks so cute and the caption is awesome. LOL)

WEEK 18 - Q&A

1. What was something that happened this week that made you laugh?
Something last night that I could not stop laughing. My comp was taking off his white button up shirt when we got home and he only undid the top button. His face when it went through the shirt. Wow. LOL.

2. If you took someone back to Danli after your mission, how would you want to spend your day?
I would honestly just talk to as many people as I could. I have a goal to come back as soon as I can.

3. When are changes? 
This week are changes. Yikes.

4. What is your favorite P-day activity?
Playing soccer. It is so fun even though I am not very good. But we all play together in this field.

5. How is the Hermana who had her appendix out doing?
She is better. It basically hurts to do everything but they work everyday and she is doing good.

WEEK 18 - 12th week in Danli

Hello everyone, this week was so so great.

Tuesday
Tuesday we worked in Urrutia, which we still love, life hasn't changed. We are helping a member build a house so we helped him make some concrete. He actually does everything and we just help him every once in a while. But it is super duper fun. We prepared Massiel for her baptism.

Wednesday
Wednesday we taught these people who straight up lied to us. Literally told us that someone who was there wasn't the same person we had taught another time, if that makes any sense. I also went to Urrutia to do a baptism interview with our Zone Leader Elder Dalgo.

Thursday
Thursday we worked in another really good area called Ocoba. While we were walking back from the area we talked to this girl and she ended up being the sister of the only member in that area. Hallelujah. Her first impression of us was right when we started talking to her, she got super scared cause a bunch of huge cows were passing by. So she stood behind us and we protected her from the cows.

Friday
Friday we worked in Urrutia again. We did service, and then more, and then a little more. We chopped some houses with machetes. Like the weeds. Until it was dark.

Saturday
Saturday morning we cleaned the font. We had the baptism. Again I had the chance to perform it and it was fantastic. When we got there she told us that she couldn't bring her underclothes because she came from work and her sister forget, she couldn't bring a towel either. We ended up running home really quick because we had an extra. The Hermanas worked some magic and did something about her underclothes. She ended up giving her testimony and it was so so so so great.

Sunday
Sunday we went to church and it was fantastic. I love church here.

This week is changes so I hope that I don't have changes. You'll find out next week.
Elder Baller

WEEK 17 - Week 11 in Honduras

This week was really really good.

Tuesday
Tuesday we worked in Urrutia, which we have rightfully named the promised land. I absolutely love going there and working, the people are so humble and everyone there loves us.

Wednesday
Wednesday we went to work in the morning and the Hermanas called us because one of them was super duper sick and wanted a blessing. We went there really quick and they called us about 10 minutes after we left and said that they were going to Tegus. She ended up having an appendectomy that night and is doing a lot better now. We have been working with a lady and she had a complete change from uninterested to very interested.

Thursday
Thursday we went to do a baptism interview for the Hermanas, because my companion is our District Leader. We basically were in charge of the baptism the whole week cause they were sick. When we got home our neighbors had locked one of the doors in their house and couldn't open it so we lent them our extra mattresses for the night.

Friday
Friday was fantastic. We worked in Urrutia again. We have an investigator that is getting baptized this Saturday, and she comes to Urrutia on the last bus. So we end up walking back. We walked to the hospital, which is about 3.5 or 4 kilometers. And decided to wait there a little while. We were both praying silently and when we opened our eyes we thought we saw a taxi so we signaled it down and it ended up being a guy that was like, jump in, where are you going? The Lord answers prayers.

Saturday
We cleaned the font in the morning and then we had the baptism in the afternoon. We ended up running around and making sure everything was good because the Hermanas... can't. But it was fantastic.

Sunday
Sunday I went to Urrutia in the morning with a member to pick up investigators with his pick up truck. We were fasting and I was running around and thought I was going to die from lack of water, but it turned out great. In the evening we also went to Urrutia, we love it if you can't tell, and prepared our investigator for her baptism this Saturday.

Great week! Love you all!
Elder Baller

WEEK 17 - Photos

Zapote. beauty of Honduras

Sunset from one of our areas the sky here is way prettier than the states.

Lunch. Hard boiled egg and cooked platanos. Better than it looks.

I fixed this chair with the door of a shelf. I'm cool.

The only clean river I have found here in the area of the other elders. This place is called Zapote.

For PDay we went to this really cool area of some other missionaries.

Picture I drew. From the Liahona.

WEEK 17 - Q&A

1. How does money work on your mission? How much do you get per week? How do you and Elder Alarcon split up the expenses? What do you have to pay for? 
We get 2400 every 15 days, which is like 140 dollars. Stuff we are both going to use we pay half and half. Everything else is just personal. With this we pay for food, cleaning stuff, transportation, and haircuts. That's it.

2. What is your favorite chore to do now that you are away from home? Least favorite?
My favorite chore is probably washing clothes because it is so different and it is not like anything we have in the states. My least favorite is taking out the trash because it is always horrible and covered in insects.

3. You mentioned a meeting about health and safety. What did you learn?
We learned a lot about how we need to clean and prepare food. And a lot a lot about mosquitos, the killer insect here.

4. You also mentioned the mission (or area) was getting back to the basics. What are the basics you're getting back to?
We are focusing more on working with members and stregthening them. Also we are focusing on talking with as many people as we can. President promised us that if we talked with 10 more people everyday than we normally would, our baptisms would double.

5. Who is your zone leader? I noticed Elder Garry in a photo with you. Do you get to see him? Do you see anyone else from the CCM?
Our zone leaders right now are Elder Dalgo and Elder Pearson. Elder Garry is in Valle Verde so I see him at zone conference every three months but other than that I haven't seen anyone from the CCM because we only work with our zone.