Chikungunya strikes!

  

Family and Friends,

This week has been one of the harder ones in Santa Barbra. We had to stay inside all week because I got a virus called Chikungunya. It has hit a lot of people here in Honduras, and I think in central America because it is passed through mosquitoes. I had pain in my muscles, headache, fever, etc. until I could get an IV from a doctor. the doctor we went to wasn't too bad, he put in an IV and I felt much better afterward. Although I was a bit skeptical because he put in a medicine to kill the fever and I almost freaked out because it made me sweat a lot, but it worked and I am fine now so its all good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elders taking care of elders...Chandler at the Dr's office

The temperatures here are at a high, as I am sure they are in AZ, and it is rough! I wonder how some people can sit in their hot houses all day and just cook tortillas. I think they like the heat a little more that I do, but it is a good challenge. The only thing that bugs me is that I am never not sweaty! ha ha I could have all the fans in the world and as long as I am here, I will be sweaty. 

 

 

 Cooking a birthday cake

 

Other than that, I have gained a little more confidence in my Spanish speaking abilities, Although I still have a far ways to go. I wish I had more exciting experiences this week but suffering in the heat with a jungle virus is about as exciting as it gets this week. 

I love you guys and I am so thankful for your prayers!

Love

Elder Dowell

Buenas tardes de Santa Barbra!

This week has been long and hot but much different than in the city! I have had more time this week to explore the area. It is almost 100 percent mountains, so we do a lot of hiking. i am sweaty all day no matter what, I don't know if my body will adapt to the humidity but for now ill just have to stick with being sticky all day. 

View from the roof top

The area is much more poor than the last area I was in. Many people just live in a cement block in the shape of a square in the mountains. We eat mangoes all day every day, that part I cant complain about. If we get hungry we literally just pick a mango off a tree, and throughout the day people give us mangoes because they have so many. I am humbled that someone who can barely afford clothes for their kids will give us 3 or 4 mangoes when we come to visit.

 
That is another thing that I don't think I will ever feel comfortable around, which is, when it gets hot, so pretty much always,people don't put clothes on their kids. its very awkward. also everyone is missing teeth.

When we go t hike up a mountain, there is always people carrying things, usually kids. My companion and I decided it was because the old people don't want to have to scale this mountain every time they need some clean water so they just send their kids. 

  

Pigs on the road

I feel so bad for them because 1. they are carrying things for their whole family, clothes, food, water, etc and its pretty heavy for a 6 to 14 year old kid. 2. they are so malnourished that I don't know how they have the energy to do it!

The first time we saw a little girl who was 13, maybe half the size of savannah. we asked to help carry her things. half way up the mountain I was sweating profusely. the next fourth of the way  was struggling hard, and when we got to the top I was DYING! How was this little girl planning on carrying this up the mountain? 

Since then a lot of our service involves helping people carry their stuff to their house and talking to them a little on the way.

I am thankful for this experience because it is different than anything I have ever experienced. I a so thankful for the support from everyone at home. Happy 4th of July!

Love

Elder Dowell

Santa Barbara

Hola!

A little bit of change this week as I had the first change of the mission so far. I was in Castaños, San Pedro Sula and took a 2 hour bus ride southeast to a little cooler place called Santa Barbara. My new companion is named Elder Permenter. He is from Connecticut and he was born in the Chandler hospital!

This week as I said bye to many of the members in castaños I was surprised that a few cried and all expressed their gratitude for me. This was a shock because I felt like I hadn't made that great of an impact on their lives, but I was touched to see that they were very grateful for my presence in their area. 

The bus trip was a long 2 hour ride through the mountains of Honduras to the city of Santa Barbara. It gets nice and cool at night which is such a blessing. My companion is able to help me with other parts of Spanish that Latinos just cant explain and so I feel that I am learning many new things. E Permenter hurt his ankle last week on the way down a mountain and the Honduran doctor put a full on cast on a twisted ankle. We couldnt go out because he had to rest so we spent a lot of time studying. 

One thing that I find comfort in studying is the Book of Mormon and the New Testament. Recently I have been finding scriptures that we can use in lessons that are in the book of Mormon. There are tons of them in preach my gospel, and believe it or not, the scripture mastery scriptures are some of the best ones to use! I wish I would have payed more attention! ha ha but I also started just reading in Spanish. So if I don't know a word I ask or look it up in the dictionary. My testimony is growing more of the Book of Mormon. I think a lot of it has to do with being in or around the place where these events took place! Also, there are many scriptures and stories that testify of Jesus Christ. At first I thought the book of Mormon was just a bunch of stories. Which might still be true, but all of these stories are used to testify of the grace of Jesus Christ. It constantly invites us to change and to do what He would have us do. We often share with people Alma Chapter 32 which talks about having faith in Jesus Christ. 

One thing that I am also learning here is that it is ok to be uncomfortable. 1, Jesus was never comfortable, why should we be? and 2, we have been cast out of the presence of God, and therefore it is inevitable that we will experience discomfort and discouragement, pain and sorrow. It is by sheer love from Heavenly Father that we are ever able to find peace in this life. It is so much easier for me to say than to take my own advice, but discomfort allows us to grow and it is why we are here on this earth.

I hope all is well at home, go to In and Out and have a burger for me!

Love

Elder Dowell

Little by little

This week has been better than past weeks.. I am learning more Spanish little by little. This week I was able to baptize my first person ever! Her name is Meli Velasquez. I think I have talked about her before but she has had a very hard life. She is divorced, one of her sons was killed by the cartel, and she lives with 3 of her sons who are lazy and she does all of their cooking and cleaning. They are around 30 I think. She has a very strong testimony of the church.

We found her at a pulperia or a little street store. She came up to us and started talking about how dirty Honduras is. She is a little bit crazy. Our lessons would go over about 30 minutes more than usual every time because we could stop her from telling stories and ranting. She is very humble and is a great example to me.

 

 

This past week we were searching for her and we couldn't find her. We went to her house, the house she works at, and at her friends house. when we got to her friends house, we saw her inside, but when the owner asked if she wanted to talk to us she shook her head. We were sure we had lost her as an investigator. We let a few days pass. at 8:30 on Friday night, the night before her baptism, we had just finished a lesson near her house. I had the feeling we should go see if she was home, even though we had scheduled an appointment with a less active member. We rescheduled with the less active member and walked to Meli's house instead. It was like clockwork. I think the spirit told us to go there because we caught her in the street walking back from work. She explained to us that she wasn't at her house because she had been avoiding her son that she is fighting with and she said that she didn't want to talk to us before because she was very emotional. Luckily, she was still excited for her baptism. she has a very strong testimony of the church and I was so thankful to have the opportunity to baptize her. 

 

 

This morning we took a long hike to the Coca Cola mountains. The mountains are so green but almost like a rainforest. Super hot and humid and bugs EVERYWHERE. 

 

 

This place is growing on me but still has many customs that I am not used to. I think it is part of the culture to be rude. But it is nice to find the people that are willing to help us as missionaries. 

Have a great week everyone! I miss family and football but this week made it feel like it is worth it.

Love

Elder Dowell

June 1st update

Dad note**
I have been a little selfish the past few weeks keeping Chandler's letters to myself.  Here is a compilation of a couple of his weekly updates.

We have one investigator that truly wants to be baptized. Her name is Meli and she is about 60 years old. One of her sons was killed by one of the drug cartels in 2003. She has many long stories that I don't understand. I think I will get to baptize her though so I am thankful for that opportunity. If she goes to church this next week she will be able to get baptized on June 6th.

We had a lesson with her this week on Saturday. I was so frustrated sitting in the meeting because my companion talked the entire hour. He only gave me time to bare my testimony. This frustrated me, but it made me even more frustrated that I couldn't think of anything to say! I wondered deeply of why Heavenly Father wanted me to come here, when He knows that I could so much easier teach people in English. I often feel like I would be a much better missionary if I were in an English speaking mission. 

After the lesson, my companion could tell how frustrated I was. He really is a cool dude but he bugs me sometimes. We went to a pulpuria or a little store after to get eggs. I asked the lady, tiene juevos? which I thought meant do you have eggs? but it really means, do you have balls? she said something smart to me and everyone started laughing. I was so so upset. I know it was funny looking back but I am still so upset that I feel like I cant communicate in a way that is normal for me.

Elder Lorenzana is a good guy. He always is willing to talk about the things that frustrate me. He has brought a lot of comfort to me. He is very knowledgeable of the scriptures and has a scripture for just about everything. I want to be like him in that way. He is super tight about the rules. its Pday today and we are wearing our church clothes because we didn't play soccer today. Last night I wanted to hurry and plan for the next day so we could take off our stupid clothes. He gave me a lecture on what the white shirt symbolizes and how I need to love wearing church clothes. I gave him the silent treatment after that one. ha ha I will wear these clothes but don't tell me to love them! ha ha 

Also his dad was a mission president in Guatemala so he lived in Guatemala for a while too, i think since he was 13.

Another investigator of ours, Mark Williams doesn't answer our calls or answer the door at his house so that is frustrating too. We really only have Meli as an investigator that is ready for baptism. Other than that we don't have many people to teach and that is frustrating. But I am pretty sure every missionary that ever lived has had that problem. 

A good thing that happened this week is we have been inviting a 21 year old less active member to go with us to lessons. He is super funny and has become our friend these last few weeks. Yesterday he told us that he was going to go on a mission! I thought that was awesome. He said he wanted to be like me because I talk to everyone, even though I dont know spanish haha.

That was nice of him to say.

I love and miss you all and the comforts of home! 

Love

Elder Dowell

 

This week was a trial. It was super hot all week and we walked a lot, but there were many blessings that I often don't see until I am writing them.

We visited a different area because we were invited for dinner by some members. The ride to the colonia named Zapotal was amazing. The area I am in is the city of San Pedro Sula, but Zapotal is more on the outskirts and so it was full of green trees and a small little river. The first thing we saw when we got there was a horse that dislocated his knee. That image will be forever burned into my mind. It couldn't walk because the bones of its knee were literally separated and its leg was dangling. I felt so bad. It seemed pretty normal to everyone around though. 

One last match with Elder Merlos

 Meli, our investigator that is getting baptized on June 6th, was in the gospel principles class. she started crying because we were talking about repentance, and she felt so bad because she still has hate for the gang members that killed her son in 2003. We will meet with her this week to explain more about forgiving others, but what was funny was after she was done crying, she started laughing and told everyone in the class that she loves it when she sees gang members die or get arrested on the news. Not something that everyone would say in a gospel principles class but she is sincere. 

 Honduran Netflix

The heat got turned up a little bit and so did my temper! I find myself so much more frustrated than usual, both because of the heat and Spanish. Everyone speaks so fast that I often have a really hard time understanding. I'm guessing everyone that has ever learned Spanish has had this problem so I really need to get better at being patient. that is probably my worst quality as a person is patience. I am thankful that Heavenly Father is showing me my weaknesses.

I love you all so much and I think of you too. Have a great week!

Love

Elder Dowell

Mother's Day

This week was interesting but the best in a while because I got to skype home! I love you guys so much and I miss you! 

this week we went back to visit with the lady whose dog bit me and extended an invitation to be baptized. She accepted so hopefully she will stay committed! 

I also got chased by another dog this week. it was barking at us a lot and then it made a fast motion at us and I took off. This was not a good idea, what was I thinking, that I could outrun a dog? haha but I know Heavenly Father was watching over me because its owner whistled for it when I got half way down the street. 

Later in the week we were walking down a dirt road and I was startled by a mean dog behind a bush. Luckily I had started carrying around half of a wood stick that was from a mop handle. I was so startled i held it like a baseball bat and it backed off. But its owners looked at me like i was crazy because I looked like I was about to swing at their dog!

The best part of this week and so far in the mission has been talking to my family this week for Mothers Day! I am so thankful for you mom. you are the best mom in the universe! I love you guys so much and I am so thankful for the time that we got to talk! 

I love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living, your baby Ill be.  

Love,

Elder 

The Watchiman

This week has been a very interesting week. It didn't feel like we had too much success but looking back, 2 of our investigators showed up to church which is awesome considering how lazy everyone is, especially on a Sunday morning. 

A few things about Honduras that I have noticed that I want to share. These are cultural things and I only notice them because they are different. The first is that everyone wears pants as opposed to shorts. No matter how hot it gets, its either jeans or sweats, there is no in between. If I were them I would just cut my pants into shorts, if that's all I had, but they must like being hot because I have yet to see someone walking with shorts on, and believe me, I'm really looking (dad quote). the second thing I have noticed is that not everyone notices when there is a gun pointed at them. I say this because outside of every pasaje or street there is a watch man or as they call it a ´watchiman´. Usually they are wearing a uniform and they all have some type of weapon, either a gun or a machete. They are pretty popular within their neighborhood because they let everyone in and out. So people stop to talk and they have a gun pointed right at them as they are talking and niether the watchiman or the person is aware. When we talk to the watchimans they look at me like Im wierd because I always try to dodge the barrel of their guns!

As I am learning more Spanish, I get more comfortable with messing up, but listening also.  Still, there are certain people I really cant understand at all because of slang and their accents. One lady asked a question and she said something about Joseph Smith so I said 'Si!' My companion took over at that point and later he told me that she asked if he is our God..oops. But she ended up coming to church so it worked out ok. I am also having a hard time with using the tone of my voice to ask questions in lessons. In spanish, you can change a statement to a question just by changing your tone. I havent figured that out quite yet so I have to keep working on that.

This week we ate at a member's house Wednesdayoafternoon like we always do. we eat there every Wednesday and we had some weird tasting juice. This is pretty normal considering all the weird tasting juice in Honduras. We finished the meal and thanked her. as we walked away elder Merlos said in the trash he saw the wrapper and that the juice she made was tea. I was, and still am so upset! Shes a member of the church and she knows we are missionaries! why would she give us tea?? As I thought more about this, I got more upset and I realized that part of this culture is being a little lazy and not paying attention to detail. But I also realized that we are always being tempted and tried. Even Jesus was tempted and tried, and he was perfect. I am thankful for His example and the people  in my life who have been an example. I love you all so much and I miss you more each week!!

Love

Elder Dowell