Well this week, i have been busy trying to figure out how to call the fam this week and i TOTALLY FORGOT to write you all. I am great, and i love you all. I am now with my new companion, who is actually new. Like i am his trainer. apparently someone trusts me. He is from guatemala, named elder pablo. pretty sweet so far. SORRY it wasnt longer,.....

Well... so this week, i am writing not much (again) because my companion is returning to guatemala on wednesday and he doesnt really see the point in spending alot of time writing family, when he will be talking with them face to face.BUT this email will be sent out in groups to explain why i am sending these pictures and who are they and all that jazz.

the first is of my FIRT CHRISTMAS TREE on my own! yeah it rocks, and its gorgeous, and it was thrown together when i had time last week... i got a package from my parents with a cool santa fool of cookies that werent my mothers because they were actually round. they are delicious, my mothers, but never ever ever round XD NEXT the fan of my comp burnt, and we had to go in and connect it directly together... so we have to plug and unplug to make it work but... welcome to honduras XD

so this week we had to plan a wedding,. thats the witnesses the cake the people the lawyer the transport EVERYTHING and one reason i am doubting marriage because it was this stressful and it wasnt even for my wedding XD BUT it happend and i was SO tired. literally i have never ran around so much in my entire mission. soooooooo much running...

ok so this morning the 15th we stopped by the house of the family to bring them to a house of a member to drive us to where the lawyer would be. we decided to have fun and help them out. the sister was super against us sweeping so she did it but WE DID TRY!!

ok so we got to our destination at 9 in the morning, and our lawyer got there at 10, who then told us she had NONE of the papers to marry them, because here the lawyers marry the people. WELL during this time we stuck all 13 of us in a subaru hatchback, and went an our into central san pedro sula, got there at 11 and waited. this is the pictures of the huge long wait XD it got bad... everyone was sleeping or hungry and... ya as you can see XD

this was a very white christmas and it hasnt even been christmas yet!! so the parents three kids and a nother young man actually all were baptized the same day. we had one of the young men from the ward baptize the son, a great leader in the ward, baptized the dad i baptized the girl and our leader of our zone of missionaries baptized the mom and the little brother. the other young man actually was baptized by my companion. his last baptism as a missionary! this coming up week will be strange, because he actually leaves wednesday... i wont have my new comp until friday... BUT we have a couple of the men in the ward in line to help me out if need be, or i will tag along with another companionship for a day, but yeah... This week was awesome and elder gonzalez did indeed end strong.

so it was alot of words then the... novios? whats that word? well they signed the paper and i had a weird face cuz i had to watch them kiss. but it was actually super awesome!!

ok, so here this is. my information of my crazy week! ok so first off, my days have been alot of my companion asking "how many days do i have left?" the same as an hour ago... BUT it is him messing around with me and we are still working hard. This week FLEW by. tuesday was pretty normal, but wednesday we had a HUGE multi zone with all the zone except two, which was alot of fun. The only bad part is after 2 it kinda died... and it didnt end till 4... BUT we ended with some fun divisions, got to see how being new looks like, when one of the greenies got sick off of something, and he was just dying. i felt fine, and we ate the same things... i guess im getting more used to the food here XD BUT after that thursday was the birthday of elder gonzalez, so i bought him a huge samita or samitona, which is just a loaf of weird bread with a crud ton of sugar on top. they are pretty good, and i attached the pictures of it. i didnt buy him a cake because i couldnt find anything cheap enough... BUT after that we had some good days of working, and we saw this old man (next set of pictures) get baptized. THAT was a fun day. ok so what happened is we got there and the pila (forgot what to call that in english) wasnt filled, and the room was filthy, and we had only 30 minutes to start. good thing is, the guy didnt show up till 3:30, his son didnt till 4 and the bishop who was doing the baptism, didnt show up till 4:30. SO my campanion ran to go check up on a family that wanted to see it, and he took one of the members with him to do so. They left and then the bishop arrived, and he wanted to start it. The family finally arrived right when we were starting the baptism, and it was a great experience. The wife was super excited to get baptized, she just doesnt want to get married. we then had to explain to be baptized you can be living in a free union, or so they call it. BUT it ended amazingly and we had a good time. We are preparing them for this saturday, so hopefully you will see a bunch of people in white clothes next week as well!!

Ok so this week has been pretty awesome! We have been working with some great people and finally able to see an amazing woman enter into baptism, who has seen so much heartache, its tough, BUT how happy she is through all of it? Its a huge way to see it. SHe has been pregnant 15 times 10 have names because they were born and 4 are alive... SHe talks about each one with a smile and love and hope to see again another time... Its a huge hope for me too and i cant help but just smile A HUGE smile we talk. Her son now is really excited to be baptized as well! Also we had another investigator that stopped talking to us, come up to us and asked us if there was a way he could be baptized this coming saturday, and so we are preparing his baptism as well! The best part really was this sunday for the christmas devotional, that if you didnt see you should, we had 3 whole families packed into a tiny tiny bus and all went and they all just got hit by how amazing it truly was! It was some great talks with some amazing songs, and a great way to really start this christmas spirit! Well until next week, i love you all, and hope you have a merry christmas!!

Ok so this week is first going to be about a guy, who his name is Immer. He is the husband of this member who has been more or less inactive for 11 years. They have a kid, and this man has been almost all over the world, living and working, and had never really wanted to go to church or anything. His dad is a member, and a couple of his brothers. a month ago he decided to wake up early get ready and wake up his wife so they could go to church. His wife was super surprised and not really wanting to get ready. BUT they went and ever since then, they have been hit with alot of opposition, trying to stop them from getting baptized, like the day he decided to get married and baptized his aunt died. But they fought through alot of trails, and this saturday that passed, he was married and baptized. It was an amazing time, with a bunch of support from the members and family, and cake. The cake was awesome, so what could we say? It was super amazing and really everyone felt touched by the spirit. It has been pretty amazing so far working here, and we are working hard. Its getting harder and harder for elder gonzalez because its getting closer and closer to when he goes home XD BUT we are keeping busy and helping everyopne we can. Everyone hates me though, because i am going Christmas crazy already, singing christmas hymns and songs ALL the time. I feel bad i never started singing christmas stuff earlier... Its just alot more fun, then being grumpy that everyone wants to be all christmasy early. I mean, why cant we be happy for two whole months singing fun songs and making others happy too? well my christmas idea for this week, start singing now!

Alright so here goes the week of thanksgiving! Today to explain the
pictures, we climbed a big mountain to where there is a huge Coca Cola
sign. We hiked alot and had alot of fun with the young men and women
of this awesome ward! i know that all of you will be loving your
turkey and pumpkin pie, while i have talked to people and most dont
even know WHAT a pumpkin is, (calebasa) BUT i will enjoy it none the
less. I have been great and i want to add the things i am thankful
for. First, my wonderful parents who put up with my crazy shinanigans,
my sibligs who helped teach me said crazy shinanigans, and mostly por
this time that i have to serve in Honduras. This time has flown by way
too fast for me, and really has helped me grow almost every day. I
hate being THAT GUY, but here is a time that i never thought would
come, but here i am. I am so grateful to meet these people, live here
during this time, and watch these men and women and children change
their lives and trying to be the bext they can be. I know some of you
wont agree with me, but that doesnt make this statement any less real.
God has called me to this place at this time. I have so much evidence
that if i shared all of it, you would all be bored and put tl,dr and
still not believe me, because as i have found evidence, comes and
goes. We had evidence that the world was flat, gravity was crazy,
aliens made the crop circles and all other tom foolery. Evidence
doesnt mean anything until WE put authority behind it. Its not until
we test it, and see for ourselves the difference of before and after.
I have seen too many lives change, felt too many things, to ever want
to deny this gospel that i preach to the world. If i do, i will be
ashamed for all time and eternity, and i know if i keep it up as i do
now, i will never deny it. I love this Gospel, this church which is
the only church that hasnt been founded by man, and most of all i love
Jesus Christ who died, so i could be clean, and lived again after two
days so i can one day live again. "The soul shall be restored to the
body, and the body to the soul; yea, and every limb and joint shall be
restored to its body; yea, even a hair of the head shall not be lost;
but all things shall be restored to their proper and perfect frame."
Alma 40:23 i know what i say is true here and i am thankful for HOW i
know. I knelt in prayer, and i asked of God if it is true. Thats how i
will end this week. That you can know its true too. Just pray to know
if what i have said is true and if you listen, and are willing to act
on the response, you will have your answer.

Alright so this week was pretty amazing! We have been teaching some
families that have been really having great experiences. I dont have
much time because this is the last week of these changes and me and my
comp are both staying in our area. We are both pretty stoked but we
have to run and we are having lunch with a couple elders that are
going home on wednesday and another whose borthday is today. I am
sorry this email is so short, and i would love to give more info, and
i will add more later, but this week has been amazing really. We have
been working with some Kids that are getting ready to leave on
missions in the next few months and they are getting better and better
and are getting really excited! Well... Im staying here so im 99% sure
ill be here for christmas and everything. I love you all and cant wait
to talk to you next week!

ok so my camera is working SO the battle was this... my clock fell INTO my bedpost... and there was no way out... it was stuck half way down... so i took our broom and beat it to the bottom, hoping there was a hole at the bottom. there was not... i then took 30-40 minutes sawing through the bottom to then get my clock... also we made mac and cheese, and i think i broke my cube, and also those red things? the most delicious ugly fruits i have ever seen in my LIFE!! ok so this week has been pretty amazing, well the end of it anyway. We found a family a couple weeks ago, who the husband was very interested but the wife not so much... She had another church and her kids were getting scholarships from this church to go to a good private school. Well they both went to church with us last week and both said they have never felt anything like it before. the husband prayed after his first church and already recieved his answer which church was the right church. She still had doubts even though she said she never felt as happy in a church then in ours. the doubts were this, if she didnt go to church, the pastor said that he would take away their scholarships. Well we understood and were sad when she said this. And on sunday the husband showed up with two of his daughters, and said that the pastor showed up at their door to bring her personally to church so she wouldnt attacked by the evil of the mormons. we sat there... and there was nothing we could do. nothing. so we walked into the building. 20 minutes later ana, the wife stormed in and sat down with the rest of her kids. I am sorry to those read this who arent of my faith, but it was an amazing experience that she will never forget because she told us that day that she knows this church was founded by a true prophet of God. I felt the spirit really testify of this work this change more than any other time in my life. also, leona, luke! thanks for your letters! and yes leona i will be coming home when you turn six. i cant wait to talk to you in a couple of weeks! love elder degriselles

Ok so this week was a handful... We had our activity, divisions with a mini missionary (a missionary that has been set apart for a couple weeks or two to replace a missionary that goes home for health or other reasons early) and interviews with the president. Also there was some other activities but those will be told of in time. Ok so this week was started off more or less with an activity. One that we planned for a long time for three sundays and other days with leaders. Ther were games outside, two types, spiritual and regular. the spiritual games recieved 3 tickets after playing, and the regular recieved only 1. after an hour the games ended and then people told two "judges" how many they gained. with different amounts they went into three rooms. one to each be for different degrees of glory in heaven. It was so we could start to think of the things we are doing in this earth. we do good things, we show we love god. if we dont we show him we dont love him. (john 14:15) it was an activity that we can reflect on what we can do better. it was so stressful, because none of the leaders showed up till about ten minutes AFTER we were supposed to start and the people with the games didnt show up till about 30 minutes after. But it was ok cuz no one showed up for the activity till 7 anyway BUT the activity was powerful. it did go well, even with me stressing out trying to figure out how to do everything. It went well. And the next day i was able to serve with an elder castillo in divisions. that day my comp had to go to his area to help that area out. (if you have questions about this area and divisions, feel free to ask me or another missionary or former missionary.) well it was a super powerful day of elder castillo teaching me alot. He still hasnt served a mission but has been preparing for one, really dang well. he knows alot of how missionaries work. After that we were able to head to the office to have interviews from our mission president and he was able to see how we are doing, and such things as that. BUT the big thing that happened is this battle... Ok. there are no words to explain. just pictures. they will be shown, and you will understand a little better. well... maybe in another email because my camera is not working at this point in time... BUT it will all be explained!

Ok so first off these pictures are what i wake up to every morning right out my window. pretty dang awesome right? ya its gorgeous here in SPS. Especially at dawn. I dont wake up to early, just at 6:15 and its just part of the way of living on the equater. It gets light at 6 and gets dark at 6. its pretty strange but im still getting used to it. So this week has been pretty busy. We are actually stilling the idea of an activity from the singles ward, where there is an hour of games to be played. There are two types of games, the spiritual, and the wordly. We are going to have a box of books of mormon so people can write their testimony and such. one thing that is super cool is that people will be gaining tickets. 3 for the espiritual and 1 for the world games. with these they will be able to really think about what things we should focus on. the espiritual, or the wordly.  its a pretty cool activity that we have been busting our butts to plan. we are loving it, and hoping that a huge turnout is able to make it to the activity! i miss facebook and using that to invite and advertize activites... Its so much esier then having a couple groups of people running around inviting and reminding everyone the three days before XD BUT other than that, this week has been great! we are working on finding people who want to listen to this gospel and its been an experience, let me tell you. The funniest is when kids run out and say no one is home, then we ask why, so they go and ask why no one is home, and they say alot of the time, "they say they arent home because of this..." and we really cant force them to listen to us, but its still funny. We just enjoyed our time alot this week and came back with some great families. Some times it is hard for me to realize that is actually impossible for people to leave their house without anybody guarding it? i cant remember the english word... cuidandolo... meh, those who can remember can tell those who cant. BUT if they are the only ones home they cant leave for church. Its super dangerous to do here in this city. Just another thing that proves to me that i am indeed a gringo and i don't live in kansas anymore. BUT i am so thankful for this time. When we have been able to help families grow closer... Its a wonderful experience that i have been able to be a part of. Also i know that some of you might want to start thinking about either christmas or birthday packages, and this are the few things ill need. Letters, candy, white shirts, and socks. Or if you dont want to spend the money on shipping you can send me the money through my mom and ill buy the white shirt and or socks here. but who doesnt like packages? Also as Elder Evans said in April 2012 general conference. "We can write of Christ by writing letters to those who are away. Missionaries serving, sons or daughters in the military, and those we love are all blessed by letters we write. Letters from home are not just quick e-mails. Real letters provide something tangible that can be held, thought about, and cherished." -Elder Evans  Just a thought here from honduras. And thank you to all of you who have sent me letters! They are all cherised and will be responded upon. And again if you are a working college student and have no money or such, there is still dearelder, which still is tangable, just not in your words, and thats ok too. Well thats enough begging, just remember that i love you all, and i know with a surity that the work i am doing here is guided by God, and i should be here.

Well everybody this week was a very strange week. I am here in the Ward Las Brisas in the main city of San Pedro Sula.  http://wikimapia.org/16733169/es/Las-Brisas i know this map wont really show much of my area but its a great area! Its called the breezes for a reason, so i am not dying of heat everyday, so i cant really complain about the heat! I live in a TINY house! the pictures i sent last week of the room? the other door leads outside or into the bathroom. I love where we live because right now, its super private and secure. Mostly because we live on the third floor. This is good because again, a huge breeze runs through our area. We are having some times finding people who are willing to talk to us right now, which is because there are alot of people that work everywhere but here so we havent really run into a family to teach, but we are working. I am having some fun learning alot of spanish, because thats all my companion speaks. My companion is actually from Guatamala, the north part of the country, and he is actually almost done! He is going to finish his mission in exactly 2 months, so i am pretty excited that i can be part of that! He is a great mission that knows a whole ton of alot. Its so far been great and i know it will be even better with the time set up now! I know this doesnt have much info info about our day to day, we have not been doing much more than FINDING so thats what i talked about this week! I love you all and i hope all is well with you!

I totally forgot to mention the craziness of my friday! im not going to mention why but on friday i found myself in a trio for a day so we could help an elder in a tough spot, but because of that i went with my companion on bauptismal interviews, and... something awesome happened!! I met my first monkey!!!!! They are actually pretty cool, and this one was very tame. He did have a weird hatred for the kittens and grabbed and chucked them long distances when he could. This monkey was tiny, weird and actually didnt have thumbs. I thought they all did... Also the tail was cool! the underside was actually kind of like a palm of the hand, the leather type of skin and all that. but that monkey was actually able to pick up those kittens with its tail! i then spent 15 minutes trying to save all of these kittens and keep them out of reach of this monkey. But... still, those cats werent the smartest i have ever seen... they just kept coming back for more!!

Ok so in these pictures are the wedding of two now members, and the party after and our planning for that day. that marriage was really a miracle. we had been teaching her and her kids for three months and every time we tried teaching him he ran, hid, or just locked himself inside their house. The wife really wanted to get baptized so much, BUT she needed to get married first, but he was very un interested in marriage. but one day he decided to talk to us, and everything just turned from there. he went to church once then missed a sunday but then the next saturday his son broke his foot, and everyone was trying to find out a way of NOT going to church but he was there the whole time trying to convince them how they COULD go to church! he was then also super excited about a plan to be able to go to the temple, so they can be sealed in the temple as a family. they are putting a weekly amount of money into the president so that after the time they can use it for this sacred purpose. It was really an amazing miracle to see. also was when we went to the beach and hung out as a zone out there. The beach wasnt the cleanest but it was dang pretty if you could ignore the smell. AND there is a picture of a little girl in a white dress. her name is jenny and she is a dorbale. she is also 7. there then is a coulpe pictures of a girl in overalls, she is catherine, she made me feel scared for my life, loved beyond all measure and she is bigger then jenny. she is also three. 3 tres. Well i am here in my new area with my new comp! i am actually in side san pedro sula in a ward. this is my first ward and im pretty excited for this new type of work that i will be able to do. it will be alot different then my first two areas, but i know i can see miracles there too. right now i am with an elder gonzalez from guatemala. He will be dying in december so most likely ill be his last companion. We havent had any problems thus far and i can see us working hard! I know that this work is the work of god.