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| Marcala, Honduras District missionaries. 1/06/14 |
Sunday, February 23, 2014
1/06/14 January 6th Elder Gurr
Hello,
How's it going? We got a lot of work
done this week. We are planning to go to the temple this Thursday and the last
time everyone did this we had a good week. The missions stats have been the
best from the last 2 years so they should be good.
We are now working with three people
who have baptism dates. 1 of them is a family and we are working to help them.
We are shooting for the 25 of January but it's going to be tough. I am ready
for the challenge. The problem is the guy wants to gain more knowledge of the
church by himself, but we are going to teach him about authority. Plus if he
wants to work with the missionaries we can finally have a ward mission leader.
:) He just wants to preach the gospel. We could use him to help us.
I have never noticed until now how
important it is to have the members work with you. It is important that the
members help because they live there. We are here for a short time.
The investigator has a friend and he is super shy, I used to be like
him. I plan on helping him feel more confident. The work is super fun and
tiring but worth it. It is hard to do what we do.
The thing I learned was that the
atonement was never easy this is why not everyone is baptized. I am weak but
with God all things are possible. He has helped me so much in learning the
language that it is starting to come easier. Just today I was studying the
green book of Spanish and I was flying
past the exercises and thinking more on does that really sound right in
Spanish. I thought it would take me forever to learn the language but because
of the prayers and my faith it is coming. I don't understand everything but it
is getting a lot easier.
I can't wait to go to the temple
this week and do the things necessary to understand the language. It's fun now
to speak the language and I rarely think in English to speak it. I hope you all
have a great time at home.
Love you all.
Elder David Gurr
12/30/13 December 30th Elder Gurr
Hello family,
This is the last email I will send
this year. I hope everyone had a good
year. Happy birthday dad. Here is what went down this week. Monday we visited a mountain view area and
took some time to reflect on our work and to set goals for next year. We visited with some investigators. We taught them the importance of studying the
scriptures. They loved it and told us they will study the scriptures. On Tuesday we helped with cleaning the front
of a house where a single mom lives with her kids and her brother. We helped clean up the place. Wednesday
I called home and we know what went down there.
About an hour after talking to you on
Skype Christmas day we had the baptism service. It was awesome. The two that were baptized bore their
testimony and it was really strong. We
are working with 4 men over the age of 18 years and we have a chance to work
with their wives. We were blessed to
find them and we hope that they can attend church so they can progress. They are awesome young men who need to feel
the love of the savior. I love the work
that has been done so far and we want that everyone can feel the Savior's love
because they need this help in their lives.
Elder Gurr
12/23/13 December 23rd Elder Gurr
Hello Family,
I can't believe that it's time again
for Skype. It has been a very short time
since I have talked with you all. Thanks
for all the support. Here is what
happened this week. On Monday we taught the
two investigators that are close to baptism.
We taught them about the plan of salvation and they loved it and we
asked them to pray to know that it was true. On Tuesday we worked hard getting 5 contacts. It was a lot of fun. The funniest thing happened we came up to a
door, the dogs were barking. After about
a minute of knocking he yelled at us and said go away. To be honest it made me laugh how blind this
man must have been to say this to us. We
laughed and continued. Another we said we have a question for you because we
wanted to ask if she knew someone but she rejected us right on the spot. What comforts me is that the scriptures say
that there will be many that will reject but many will accept. I am grateful to be serving and the harder the
better to really test me.
On Thursday we had the opportunity
to have a Christmas party. We think that our investigators are ready to
be baptized this Christmas. We are working
hard to create this miracle. Funny thing
happened to the sisters they were teaching a family when they had a new young
convert with them and they asked him to bear a testimony and talk about who was
Joseph Smith but he talked about Nephi´s story as if he was him. It was super funny. Thanks for everything talk to you Wednesday
with Skype.
Elder Gurr
Ready for Christmas
12/16/13 December 16th Elder Gurr
Hello Family,
Guess what, I had a wonderful
experience this week. The less-active
family that has two daughters, well we put a date with them December 25 so this
is going to be an awesome Christmas. We
are going to help them get to this baptism. Our main focus is on these two and also
finding new people because people are disappearing during the holidays. I think because a lot of people want to visit
people in the United States. Almost
everyone has some relatives in the United states. Almost all of them can't speak English. It's been a tough week because not too many
people are here right now.
We found a person from another
religion and we told her about our church.
She said she was close to leadership in her church but loved to hear
more about our beliefs. She had a ton of
questions about the Bible. You could say
she was seeing how much we really new. Luckily
I felt that I needed to read the Bible a little more and I read all the way
through Mathew. I like reading about Christ's
life. It is very powerful. She tried to see my knowledge of the Bible and
because I studied it before I was able to answer every question with my
companion and she said she could feel something different and felt like what we
were saying was true. If she decides to
investigate the church then she might help her husband who has no church but
only wants to listen about the church.
The thing I learned is you won't get
anywhere if you don't put the work to it. James 2:17 says faith without works is dead. You can see progress on the mission when the
investigators put their part in. I testify
that the church is true and that God tests our faith and if we work hard we can
see miracles.
Love you all.
Elder Gurr
12/2/13 December 2nd Elder Gurr
Hello family,
How is life going for you? My week
was awesome, scary, and very spiritual.
Tuesday we climbed the mountains. It
was fun. I have pictures but the computer is slow so I will try to send them
later. We talked to the branch president to help him to know what things he
might be able to do better for his branch. It was a very spiritual moment for
me. On Thursday we planned an activity to help the branch out. We made s'mores
and they had no idea what a s'more was, which was kind of funny. The other day
we taught a family about the word of wisdom and after explaining why we don't
drink coffee the father understood that it was revelation given to us by a
prophet and the father knows that it is not good for the body.
This Thursday we plan to teach the
restoration to the same family which will put everything we have taught so far
together. They are ready to know why the church is true. It's awesome! That was
the most spiritual feeling I have ever felt because we taught with the spirit
and not by our own words. I know I can only speak through the power of the gift
of tongues. It is a blessing to be speaking another language. Without this
gospel I feel that I would be lost in this world. I am grateful for the gospel.
We had the zone conference with President
Fortuna on Friday. I had interchanges and we had a crazy day of people
contacting us. Then we walked home and out of nowhere some strange thing
happened. I know an angel is watching over
me. A black dog attacked us in the dark, but I was not bit. I know I was
protected by the Lord. The zone leader thought that I was bit but I was fine.
Sorry the computer is messed up
right now but love you.
Elder David Gurr
11/25/13 November 25th Elder Gurr
Hello family,
How are things going? Well it's been
a long election week, but I am now ready to have a good week. So here is a little about what happened this
week. This Monday we had a interesting
experience. I locked us out of the house
so we had to fix that problem which took some time but it was weird to cut the
metal part of the lock to enter our house. That day we found a new family. They are a coffee growing family but that
doesn't mean that they still can't be members of the church. Tuesday was my most favorite day of the year. We had an appointment at a military base. She said there were 50 people interested in
the gospel. The problem is we needed special permission from the zone leaders
to teach so we could not.
The weirdest thing happened. We were talking in front of the base when a
random monkey came out of nowhere. He
climbed on me and it was really weird. I
understand the phrase your acting like monkeys. Then we visited a less-active family which we
found a new investigator which was awesome.
I also was able to touch a goat because they had one, awesome! The lesson though with the family was powerful
and the husband is becoming more active again.
Wednesday we taught another
less-active about the plan of salvation because they could not remember. Then we taught a 15 year old kid who reads the
bible and doesn't spend his time wasting it. He could be baptized but he is working hard at
school. He lives on the other side of
the mission for school. Here in Marcala
there is only bilingual school. So some
people know a little English here. On Thursday we had 1 day interchanges with
another elder and his name is Elder Borge from Nigaragua. He has tons of energy
and he is a new missionary. We taught a
powerful lesson with the new family we found.
Friday the missionaries had a baptism which
was awesome to see them achieve their goals. We have a thing going to help each other to
baptize more but to also help the people. Then Saturday, Sunday, Monday we were
not allowed to leave due to elections but nothing bad happened. We are all ok. I am ready to go out and serve the Lord again
and ready to bring souls unto him. Love
you all. See you next week again.
Elder Gurr
11/18/13 November 18th Elder Gurr
Hello Again,
Well it has been a long hard week
but now it's over. I can't believe the
things that happened this week. On Monday
we found a family which they have a problem with coffee because this area is
big on coffee. It's not hard to find it
here but they can overcome it with our help.
Tuesday we visited a less active member. She needs to know the importance of why we are
here and why we keep the Sabbath day holy. On Wednesday we had a transfer
meeting and now here we are. I am still
in Marcala and have a new companion named Elder Longshore. He is from Washington state but he has 19
months on his mission. It's interesting
to see how much improvement has happened in my language. I know I have a lot to learn and I am trying
to be as humble as I can be to receive it.
We are finding people like crazy we
found this other family that kind of lives in the mountains and they are open
to religions. They are Catholic but when people say this they don't actually
mean it. They don't go to church, that is what it usually means. The other day we found an undercover cop and
it was awesome. She is open but
sometimes works on Sunday but she is a person you would not expect. She is awesome and we plan on helping her get to
church.
We are planning on working with
less-actives and find people to teach that way. Last night we found a really
positive person who is interested in the gospel because we found them with a
less-active family. Also, I was on
interchanges with another Elder, (Elder Borge) he is from Nicaragua. We were like, what should we do, then we
decided to pray for a miracle after we finished our prayer we looked up and
there was our miracle. He was there and asked if we were Mormons. He said that
he would like us to come and we taught a lesson in the park. It was awesome!
Love you all have a good week.
Elder Gurr
11/11/13 November 11th Elder Gurr
Hello family,
A lot of interesting things happened
this week. Monday we met a family who
one of them was from Huntsville, Alabama. Yah! I was born there. He speaks English, but he is learning Spanish
here. That was so cool. On Tuesday we had our district meeting about
preparing to have enough to live for 3 days when we can't leave the
house. Wednesday we worked like crazy.
We taught 5 lessons and found 5 new people which is very good. Thursday we worked liked crazy helping a less
active to find the truth that the church is true.
Friday we worked again and we are
working now with a big family. They have 10 so we will see what we can do to
help them find the truth in everything. I have been really excited to work this
week and I might be transferred out in the next changes. I hope not.
On Saturday we had a miracle. We had another baptism at the last minute. She was ready a long time ago but she was
just scared. She wanted to but was
scared she could not. She is much better
now baptized and confirmed. It's awesome
when we can have baptisms. We are still working hard and preparing for what
lies ahead. Sunday we found 3 new people
and made this family size even bigger teaching almost 12 people in this family
alone. I am excited for changes but I might
leave and I don't want to.
See you next week love you, love
serving and have a strong desire to serve. The language is hard but I am
working hard to overcome this challenge.
Elder Gurr
11/04/13 November 4th Elder Gurr
Dear family,
Wow! November, that went by fast. Not much new here. Here is what happened. We have been dealing with a big problem. We are in charge of making sure everyone is
healthy but the sisters are sick. We are
helping them get back on their feet again. We went out contacting and we are still
working with a family investigating the church.
Hopefully they can come to church next week.
I am still working on the Spanish.
It's still rusty, but a lot better. I am
excited to see what this week will bring.
I can also say it's very
beautiful here. We are finding and my
companion needs to go to Tegucigalpa for his teeth. He is missing his filling,
but we are going to work on that as well.
I like this scripture 4 Nephi 1:15- And it came to pass that there was
no acontention in the land, because of the blove of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people. It's an awesome scripture. I
want you to think about this when you are mad.
This is an awesome scripture that has helped me a lot. We are not
perfect but we can learn a ton of things one to another. I love you all and
have a great week.
Elder Gurr
10/28/13 October 28th Elder Gurr
Hello family,
What a week! I felt like I wrote to
you a few hours ago. Well here is a
little bit about what happened this week. Monday we cleaned the house and we worked hard
to help us enjoy our P-day by making a bonfire, but it was hard to get the fire
started. Then we left for the night and
tried to find someone but they weren´t there. We talked to a wife´s husband about changing
his life and he came to church and he is working on his problems to follow
Christ. Tuesday was wonderful we taught an investigator and he is interested in
the church but his wife won't talk to us.
Hopefully we can start working on this family. We found also a new person who is a missionary
for a different church. He is interested
in the church and we helped him see that the Book of Mormon is another
testament of Jesus Christ. He is very excited to learn more about Jesus
Christ. We were teaching a family investigating
the church. They are interested about
the after-life, but here everyone has different opinions. We are working on that.
Wednesday we had interviews with the
Mission President only to find out how we are doing spiritually and it's great
to have him here. It's been hard to work because of so much rain but everything
is good now, well it's the raining month here. Yea!
I found some cool postcards of
Honduras you guys are going to receive one soon. I just need to send it to the office. We are simply talking to everyone and we hope
to find more people to teach. The problem is they need the desire to go to
church. That's the biggest problem here. Sunday was cool we invited the new
converts over for food and it was fun. We visited some less actives and one
thanked us for coming and said he wants to come back to church because he knows
it is important. It's awesome to see the good spirits here in Marcala.
Elder Gurr
10/21/13 October 21st Elder Gurr
Wow how much time passes is crazy! I can't believe how much has happened. It's
been tough only because we have been searching hard and we contacted 15 people
this week and found 11 new people. We found this little girl and we gave her
something to read and her older sister and she read the whole thing and had
questions. She is 9 years old and she
read the book. She is awesome, but they
live kind of far away from the church. She
is interested but her sister did go to church.
She just woke up late and couldn't go with her sister last Sunday.
Another was a miracle when we were
walking Sunday we saw the returned missionary (RM) who trained 4 elders. He is still in town and he wants to help us. We could use the help. He is super excited about the work he even offered
to help the sisters and teach with them. We have some remodeling work to do in our
house. The roof is leaky but the owner
said he will fix it. We had a super positive
family that we found in a clothes store. He was for about 40 minutes saying no and making
excuses why like I go to another church. He admitted he was mad because the
missionaries were not visiting him. Then
we visited him and he thanked us for coming wow. It's scary how many things can happen so
quickly. I am teaching like crazy. This has been my week!
Elder Gurr
10/14/13 October 14th Elder Gurr
Hello again,
Wow it scares me sometimes when I
can understand my companion. Like I said he can't speak English but I can
understand him, well not perfectly. Monday
I introduced him to the Bishop here and we ate dinner and talked about ways to
improve the area. Tuesday we helped a
family clean dishes and helped them with the things they needed. They appreciated
the help and my companion wanted to teach the husband because he is not a
member. He hasn't decided to listen to
our lessons yet. It is not his time but
maybe in the future he will listen.
We were contacting in the night
which is actually hard to do here. People
start sleeping at 7 pm to get up at 4 am for their jobs. We found a returned missionary (RM) who was
telling us to work hard. He was telling
us to work hard and you will find people. He trained 4 elders on his mission. This guy was incredible! On Wednesday we worked in interchanges. I went with the zone leader and we worked
there. We found a investigator that was lost for sometime but after finding him
he said that he knows he needs to be baptized. What a cool experience for the
zone.
On Friday we had a meeting about
following the spirit and we can have the spirit with us if we follow the
commandments of God. We hit our goal as
a zone to find 100 people we found 121 new people, a record for the whole
mission. It was a miracle but I think it's
time to make this area work. The
president had a dream that the area was going to be prosperous soon. Thanks for
the support.
Elder Gurr
10/07/13 October 7th Elder Gurr
Hello family,
This week has been crazy. We first
on Monday had a bonfire because we didn't know if we would have changes. We
taught the neighborhood and it was a fun time being with the district. We got to make "hobo" dinners and
roast smores. Then on Tuesday we visited members to say good-bye because we
found out that Elder Osborn was leaving and I was receiving a new companion. On
Wednesday I got to see my first Zone leader finish his mission and I can tell
you time is flying like crazy.
I received a new missionary here in Marcala and his name is
Elder Calel. He is from Guatemala and he
doesn't speak any English so I can practice Spanish all the time. I do understand him and I am grateful for
that. We got tons of contacting done and he doesn't take no for an answer. The people we contact say no thanks but he
won't stop till we can receive a return appointment or teach something quick. He is a hard worker and he loves to work. He is the new district leader and he is
working hard to work on this area.
I
loved the talks in General Conference and I know that loving God is the most
important thing I can ever do. I love you all. I am working hard to build the kingdom
and see you next week.
Elder Gurr
9/30/13 September 30th Elder Gurr
Hello Everyone,
First on Tuesday we called an
investigator and it was a miracle because we called him and asked him if he
really wanted to be baptized and he said that he did this Saturday. We were not
expecting this so he was baptized on Saturday and it was incredible! The funny
thing is that my companion found out that it was a contact from over 14 weeks
ago and he was the one to be baptized. It was very awesome!
We bought water heaters because the
water here is extremely cold, like 55 degrees. He took a bucket shower after
because he doesn't like cold water. We found a new family this week. They are on the fence about the gospel, but
we are going to try to touch their lives.
Oh, the funniest thing happened this
week. We were walking to go find someone
and someone saw us and said in English, "You can't convince me of your
book." Me and my companion were
like what? We told him that we only
invite and he was telling us he doesn't believe in religion. At the end of our discussion he wanted us to
talk about the Book of Mormon. It was a weird contact. Also he saw his neighbor
and he asked her in Spanish to come over to talk with us. She said she was going to the Catholic church
but the guy said in English she is making excuses. It was funny but my
companion felt embarrassed. At the end we said that we could answer all his
questions. The neighbor will call us soon.
She is preparing questions for us. She is open to religion. She just likes to know things. The time is
going by fast over 35% of my mission is done and I can tell you it has been one
interesting year!
Elder Gurr
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