LITTLE NURSE, RAISING A CHILD + CARING FOR THE ELDERLY

Good Evening America,

Quite the interesting week if I do say so myself. All was normal until Tuesday morning when Elder Breshears found out that we were going to be getting another missionary, aka we were going to be in a trio. We went to San Pedro on Wednesday and found out that I am training a new missionary! Pretty sweet. His name is Elder Merlos. He is from Texas, but his parents are from El Salvador, so he already knows spanish and all that jazz. We are going to be in a trio until Elder Breshears goes home next week. It is quite the odd situation haha. Im with one person who is just starting his mission, and with another who is about to end. Elder Merlos seems really cool and is way ready to learn and work. We didnt waste anytime and pretty much went right to work. This week was kind of rough because Elder Breshears got way sick. Friday, we went to lunch and he had like zero desire to eat, and was not feeling good at all. We took him home, and had arranged for him to go to a members house and rest, but he said he couldnt even walk, so we just had to sTay with him at the house. I was seriously taking care of him like a little nurse. It was super weird haha. If Mrs. Elder Breshears' Mom reads this letter, just know that your son is alive today due to the tender love and care that I provided this week. That may be a stretch, but I did what I could haha. I was like waking him up every 4 hours, making him take pills, going and buying him stuff to drink/eat, etc. During all of this, I still had to be doing the training stuff for Elder Merlos and making sure he wasnt just running home or doing something crazy like that haha. It was quite the interesting week, like I said. Training a missionary is pretty sweet, but it isnt exactly easy. He was only in the MTC for 12 days because already speaks the language, so he didnt learn much about how to do all the missionary teaching and all that jazz. It will be awesome though. I shall take him under my wing like a soaring eagle and raise him as my own. Im super stoked for the opportunity to be training, and Im way excited for these next 6 weeks! Well, thats about it. Sorry this letter is lame, I didnt have much to write this week. Life is tough when you are raising a child and caring for the elderly. Stay classy world! 

Elder Shuga

THE MAN, PATRIOTISM PANCAKES, CELEBRITY

What up world!
Time is flying by as always. I will just get right to the stories! We spent a lot of this week looking for new investigators. This area is pretty wealthy, which a lot of times makes it hard to reach the people. They are living better than the majority of people in Honduras, so they don't see the need to make any changes in their life. It's hard to argue that with them, so we just hope they listen, go to church, and find out for themselves. So yeah, that has been pretty interesting talking to all these random people. More on that later. Wednesday, we had interviews with our new president, President Dester. He is, for lack of a better term, the man. He is seriously so cool haha. He just seems super nice and super excited to be in the mission, which makes all of us excited too. Oh, and he asked me about my conversion story and who introduced me to the church. I told him about Kim, and he asked if she was planning on waiting for me. I said yeah and he was like SO happy for me. He told me it is great to have a supportive girlfriend writing you in the mission. Him and his wife met when they were 15, he went on his mission, she waited, and now they are married. He is all for it and loves my story, so take THAT, Mormon community at large haha. I'm way excited to have him as our president. I can only imagine how overwhelmed he must feel right now starting out, but he seriously seems so prepared and ready. It shall be swell. Thursday, we celebrated the 4th of July as a zone with a pancake breakfast. I never thought I would spend an independence day away from the motherland, but here I am. It was way fun. We spoke English, ate a common American breakfast, and basked in the sweet sweet patriotism coursing through our veins. Just how a fourth of July should be. We did more contacting later in the day, looking for more people. Some guy stopped us and quoted some random scripture that had nothing to do with anything and asked me where it was, like trying to test me or something. I was like "I don't have the whole bible memorized, but I can try to find it for you later if you want?" and he says "good. Cause I have no idea where it is, but I know it's in there!" Alright then...haha. He then went on to lecture us that he always sees us passing by, but we never go door to door like the Jehovah Wittnesses do, because we hate poor people. What? Haha. I explained that we pass by without stopping because we have actual appointments set, but we'd be happy to stop by someday and talk to him. He just continued to lecture us on how we all have the responsibility to go and preach "the good word" and how bad of a job we do if we just pass by. This guy was sitting outside of his house in a stain covered wife beater, cooking corn on the cob, and cat calling any young girl who passed by in hopes of flirting his way to a corn customer or something, but was telling us we need to fix OUR lives haha. He just continued to quote scriptures that had nothing to do with anything, and I just was fascinated by talking to him. He was getting so worked up haha. I could have talked to him all day, but Breshears was like fed up with this guy, so he ended it and we went on our way. After 23 months of dealing with people like that, he is more sick of it than fascinated like I am haha. Understandable. Then this happened AGAIN, like three hours later. We were eating dinner with a member, and her non member brother came in and just started going after us about the most random stuff. Twas obnoxious/intriguing. As far as the rest of the week goes, we just continued working. A lot. We had a solid amount of investigators in church on Sunday, so that was cool. We worked way hard this week, and saw the results of it. It was quite the week, if I do say so myself. I'm loving this area still. I'm like famous here, it's weird haha. People are like always screaming my name and waving at me when we walk the streets. Not just members, but like everyone haha. Someone will pass by in a car and scream "Shuga!!!!" and wave, I'll wave back, Breshears will ask me who it was, and I'll have no idea haha. It is super funny. But yeah, I'm just chillin, living the high life in Cerro Verde. Stay classy!
Elder Shuga

SMALL WORLD, NEW MISSION, NEW PRESIDENT

What Up World!

Quite the interesting week if I do say so myself. Actually, it really wasnt that interesting, but I didnt have any other way to start this email. Tuesday we found out that Elder Ramos had a change. Awwwwww bummmmeerrrrrr. It will be difficult, but I will move on with time. We just spent all of Tuesday saying goodbye to the people in the area. That is always so awkward because you just feel like the third wheel who is still going to be around the next day, so you cant really have this dramatic heart felt goodbye, you just stand around and take pictures haha. Wednesday, we went to change meetings and I got my new companion. His name is Elder Breshears and he is from 5 minutes from my house. Kim's family knows his family and has told me to look out for him in the mission, and now we are companions. It is super weird haha. As of today, he has 23 days left in the mission, so I am going to be his last companion. We couldnt believe that we got called to be companions and how much we have in common. We are 2000 miles from home...together. Well, he is like 1998 miles from home. I'M 2000 miles from home. He knows nothing of sacrifice...just kidding haha. It is super weird because we know exactly what places we are talking about when we talk about home, we have a ton of mutual friends, etc. He is in the same stake as I would be in if I lived at home, but we never saw each other at any stake stuff because I was baptized when he had been in the mission field for 1 month. If that doesnt show how long he has been out, I dont know what does haha. We just cant get over how weird it is that we live so close and all that jazz. He went to the same missionary store to get all his clothes and everything, so all of our shirts, pants, and socks are the same brands. Oh, and we have the exact same shoes. It just is weird haha. We spent a good chunk of the week just introducing him to members and investigators. We had some way sweet lessons this week. One of them was just purely by chance too. We had a bunch of appointments fall through, so we just decided to go contact this one house and the people were SO cool. They let us right in, were way accepting, and seem super cool. That usually doesnt happen, so we were quite stoked haha. We taught one lesson that I really loved. It is this girl named Kimberly (shout out to all the Kimberlys out there) and her boyfriend is a member, but she isnt. We were teaching her and it reminded me EXACTLY of the first time I met with the missionaries. She seemed super uncomfortable and nervous so I just kind of stopped the lesson down and explained to her my conversion story and how I knew exactly how she felt. I love being able to tell people that I know exactly how they feel, and then be able to have them look where I'm at now. It is possible to go from thinking the missionaries are crazy for asking you to be baptized to being on a mission thousands of miles away from home in a year haha. Twas sweet. This week was the last week for President Veirs and the San Pedro Sula mission. Quite the bummer. But alas, life goes on. Our new president, President Dester, is here and he seems like he is awesome. It is kind of a weird transition process because we all know more about the mission than our mission president does haha. Oh, I am in the San Pedro Sula West mission now in case anyone was concerned. Times they are a'changin folks. Well, I really dont have a lot to write this week to be honest...my bad. Ill try to put myself in extreme danger or contract some disease so I have something to talk about next week. Until then, stay classy world!

Elder Shuga