The Jungle Report, Ed 23 Feb 2015

Well, yup. I am back to good ole Copan! Reliving the Copan dream folks. Well the fact is that the one year three months that I have had away from Copan has brought little to no change. No really...it still looks the same. Yeah, a whole lot of dirt and trees and black beans.

Well my new companion is Elder Sanchez from Salvador. He is a total stud and we are working hard to get the good work rolling. We have been just getting to know the branch and trying to figure out a way to get the work going here.

So for p-day today we went to the river and were having adventure time climbing rocks and getting to the top up near the waterfalls to take a cool pic. Well turns out that not too many of the missionaries are into climbing huge rocks and having a bunch of fun. Yeah so we only had one person fall into the river, and that would happen to be my new comp. It was pretty funny. Well there isn't too much to report just living the Copan dream. I will tell you more when more happens. As of yet I am new again and trying to get it all down here. Well loves you guys and can't wait to hear from you again,

Mike

The Moria Report, Ed 16 Feb 2015

Well this was a good week, folks. Well it has been a long fight for us to get her ready for the pila, but this week we had Doris' baptism! Yup that is right folks from gringo-landia! Doris got dunked! Her family was so happy. This was about three years in the making but now the whole family is a happy family in the Church.

Also this week we got a whole new bunch of gators and are now working on the process of getting to teach them all and help them progress. And that brings me to my next point...well now that I have everything just the way that I want it and we are working like a well oiled machine...turns out that this is the last Moria Report. And we are going back to the Jungle Report! That's right! I am going this Wednesday to Copan again! Not the same area but the next area over. A town called La Entrada. Yeah now I am being asked to help a new district out in Copan. Yeah so I will be writing you all from out in the outskirts of Copan next week folks. thanks for all the support and love and I will see you next week in the report.

Mike

The Moria Report, Ed 2 Feb 2015

Well this weeks report starts with a giant "I am an idiot" due to the fact that last week I apparently didn't ever send the report just logged out thinking the contrary.

Well after that fail we will just move on again. So this last week was really cold actually. To the point that my comp and I had to go shopping for blankets. Yeah but that isn't going to last too long and so in the meantime we are rocking a good ole Lighting McQueen Cars blanket and a zebra striper to survive the wee bit of cold at night. Rather funny because those were the only blankets that we could find here. I mean I never needed a blanket before in a tropical jungle zone. Just craziness!

As in the baptism front, this last week brought us three baptisms here! Yeah it was a really exciting day. We have been reactivating families recently and turns out when you have been inactive in the Church for almost twenty years you have kids and family who aren't members and just need a little teaching and boom! Baptizing and reactivation at the same time. It is really powerful for people to remember their baptism and the promise that they made with God when someone they love is getting baptized, too. I have had the opportunity to see the effects that come from just remembering the joy of forgiveness that comes with "getting dunked." It is really sweet to see.

As of note though, the nights are cold, the sun is back and now I am getting super tan and sexy (not that I wasn't before). Today we just got back from going to the zoo. Yeah turns out that there is a zoo here, who knew? Yeah good times really. Got to high five a kangaroo for punching this kid in the head who stuck his head over the fence. No really! I put my hand on the fence after and he totally gave me a bro-fist! We totally have to kidnap him, for the fact that he is awesome.

Also saw a pen labeled "American Bison" with only a Scottish Highlander bull in it. Turns out that Catrachos don't think that there is a difference. Hugged a giraffe's head. None of the other missionaries were brave enough to try and hug him. Check that one off the bucket list...WAIT! TWO off the list, high five a kangaroo, too! Hahahahaha! Good day today. Also didn't know that sheep were a zoo animal...until today! So some wins some losses for the zoo today. But still fun.

I will get you the pics later when I get them uploaded but the compy here is being a communist and not cooperating. Well I love you guys can't wait to hear from you next week,

Mike

The Moria Report, Ed 9 Feb 2015

So this week, THE HEAT IS BACK!!! NOOOO! Yeah well it is true. Now comes the smelly sweaty shirted gringo contacting peeps again. But this week we have been back to the old game "find more investigations cause we baptized the last batch." Never a bad problem but still inconvenient.

So we have been contacting a lot. Which means a whole lot of walking. The crap part of the Mines of Moria is that everyone is gone until like 6 pm and then since they have to work bright and early again they go to bed at like 7:30 pm. That gives us about an hour and a half to try and talk to a bunch of dirty old miners who just want to go to bed. Yeah but we are getting more, poco a poco.

Well I would have a bunch of cool stories normally right now but hey, the Honduran internet is about as useful as their police force right now so I will have to call for a rain check for the next week.

I love you all and can't wait to hear from you all. Until next week's episode, remember to keep your stick on the ice.

Elder Duff