Happy in Honduras!

Crossfit Honduras Style!

Familia! 

Wow, there are a million things I want to share with you. I do have more time than I thought I would have but not enough to share everything. I will share as much as I can. When I email I may only have time to send one big email and not send emails to each person individually. Know that I have read your emails and I love and appreciate all of them. Where to start... When the plane landed it was pouring rain. When I stepped off the bus there was a big humidity change. President Klein, Sister Klein, the AP´s, some sister missionaries all met us at the airport. It was so good to see them! They were so kind and comforting. President Klein gave a great "pep talk". He got us all very pumped. From the airport we drove to a chapel and had an orientation meeting. We ate pizza hut also. 

Each elder had an interview with the President. There I found out my new companion and where I will be serving. My companion is a great man, Elder Suazo from Nicaragua! I am serving in a town called Sonaguera. It is so beautiful. It's super tropical, almost all the roads are dirt. Shops run down all the main roads. It's very hot and humid but I am getting used to it. We walk up some stairs and onto a big patio type thing and in the middle is our house. It's a nice little home. We have two fans but no air conditioning so that's fun. :) The shower usually has running cold water so that's nice. We have a little kitchen. I made some yummy scrambled egg sandwiches. To get to Sonaguera it took about 7 hours on a bus. My first two nights weren't in Sonaguera, they were in other Elders' houses but I don't have time to explain all that. There are 4 elders here in the district of Sonaguera. The other two are also Latinos. Elder Guzman, and Ëlder Monterosa. They are great! I love all three of these guys! They are super fun to be with and are very patient and helpful with my Spanish. I am totally immersed in Spanish here. Everyone calls me "Gringo" which means white person. Apparently I'm a pure gringo because both my parents are white. I'm the only "gringo" in Sonaguera. 

Everyday a nice lady (Hermana Gladis) makes us lunch at this awesome little outdoor restaurant. We make our own breakfast and we either pay members or the members feed us dinner. The members are all very nice even though they laugh at me a lot for not understanding what they say. haha I love them though and am already great friends with many of them. Last Thursday I arrived here in Sonaguera. We taught a lesson that night. An awesome man name Kenneth who is 21 years old, he served a mission in Mexico drove us to the house we gave the lesson at. He drove us in his small truck. I sat in the back on one of those small seats that faces inwards. It took like 45min to get to the house. Super beautiful and tropical drive all on dirt. We taught Sister Ocampo and her daughter the law of tithing and fast offerings. They were baptized this last Saturday! The lesson I taught with Elder Suazo was the last lesson before their baptism. The baptism was wonderful. Victor, the father of Sister Ocampo, who is 72 baptized them both. Here you 

Filling the Font

either baptize people in a river or you have to construct a font out of stuff they have in the shed about 50yds from the chapel. This time we built the font. Once we had the font built, we filled it up using buckets of water. In the shed there is a well of water that we would pull water out of and then carry buckets over to the chapel and fill the font. We are SO blessed in Utah. We had us 4 elders, and 4 other young men. It took us a few hours. 

First Baptism!

I'm doing crossfit every morning here. It's good to be back on schedule. Thanks emily for the list of crossfits. Fasting was very difficult on Sunday. In the church they don't have air conditioning, they have lots of fans though. Church is at 9. Up until around 10:45 the electricity was out so the fans didn't work. It was so hot! I did bear my testimony in Spanish! There were about 85 people who attended, Elder Suazo said it was a very good amount. The work here is moving very quickly. Part of our fast was to have 4 baptisms in November. When it was hard fasting and other times here I think about the time Jesus asked Peter "lovest thou me more than all" and I am strengthened because I forget myself and start thinking about the Savior and others. 

Let me share some random things you see here on the road you guys will think are interesting. The houses are very colorful, There are always people riding in truck or trailer beds, I saw a man with one leg chopping down plants with a machete while on crutches, two young boys driving a small horse carriage, giant ropes on the ground for speed bumps, soldiers with AK47s, vendors run up to bus stops and lift the food up to the windows yelling and trying to sell their food, many skinny horses, cows, dogs, and chickens, trash dumped into ditches, burning the trash on the side of the road, man riding a bike with a woman on the pegs holding a baby, man carrying a bundle of wood on his back with an axe in his hand, a lady came onto one of the buses I rode carrying a chicken in a bag, woman balancing a bucket of laundry on her head, people washing clothes in the river. Those are some of the things Ï see here. :) Its a whole new world! It is so beautiful and tropical. During lessons many times chickens are walking through the house. One odd thing is often women here breast feed right in front of us during lessons without covering up at all. Wild dogs are everywhere. I'm so grateful to be where I am with the people I am with. I love and miss you all so much. I wish you could all be here with me. Keep up the missionary work back home. I love you!

Love Elder Conover