November 2, 2009

Hola!

So where to begin......... Oh ya I’m so freaken sorry grandma and grandpa I didn’t even get a chance to call you guys when we got in to Miami, we had to trek all the way across to the other side of the airport and go through security and customs then when we got to our gate which was a brand new part of the airport they didn’t have any phones near by and after we went through customs and picked up our bags in Teguc the President and the AP´s were already there waiting for us so I didn’ have anytime there. So I am so sorry, I have been feeling bad ever since I got here because of it. I hope you guys aren’t to bummed out (losiento).

So I’ll start from the beginning.... Everything went fine at the airports no problems anywhere, the flight in to Teguc once we got above the land was crazy. We got to see a lot of the landscape which is all way freaken green, we flew over Roatan the big tourist island and a couple of other smaller islands. When it came to landing time we were definitely in a third world country. I swear we weren’t more then a good 100 ft off the ground flying right over the tops of houses and barely missing power lines, the airport itself is right at the bottom of a mountain so the pilot had to barely clear the top of the mountain then dive bomb it on a turn to land the plane. The ends of the wings were barely missing parts of the mountain they had cut away so the airplane could land, but we did land fine. As we were getting off the plane we saw some missionaries that were headed home and we talked to them for a minute. They told us that they wished they were in our position just getting off the plane, not about to get on. So then we went through customs and when we went to pick up our bags it was all there except for Elder Woudens so we stood there for a while not knowing what to do. Then we went out of the bag claim area and went to meet our President, they were there with the Aps. When the president shook my hand I didn’t really know it was him cause he was so short, the top of his head barely comes halfway up my chest same with his wife. Oh, I forgot right as we walked out some dude tried to grab my bags! I told him no but he didn’t listen but he took them and just set them by the President and didn’t even say a word to me then he wanted me to pay him! It was crazy.... anyway so half of us went with the president and half went with the Aps, I went with the president. We got in the car which is a way freaken nice van and then took off..... now let me tell you driving in Teguc is unlike any driving in the states anywhere, there are no lines in the roads so no lanes. People don’t even pay attention to the street lights, there are school buses everywhere that people take and use like normal buses and they deck them out and put big stacks on the back for the extra stuff, they are all cromed out and crazy rims and the drivers are the craziest and best drivers ever! It crazy!!! I’m actually scared to drive here but I kinda hope I get to! So after the crazy car ride we got to the mission office which is a building the church owns. It is a big office building and we were going to have lunch and guess what my first lunch was in Honduras..... Chinese food hahaha and it was actually way good. So after lunch we had are welcome meeting with the APs and all the missionaries in the office and the President’s wife, and while we were having the meeting the President would take us out one at a time in to his office and have our interviews, let me just say President Florez is a stud he is so awesome! We talked for like an hour and he showed me my area which is called Catacamas (I’ll go more in to detail about my area later). Then after the meeting we did a few technical things, exchange money (by the way 1$ American = 19 limps which is the currency they use here), we got our debit cards for our money from the church that stuff, then we went to the President’s house and had dinner which was way freaken good. Then we went to the APs house to sleep. Their house is huge but there are also 8 missionaries living there but it was sweet, there was like 14 missionaries sleeping there at once. The next day we went to the President’s house and had breakfast ( we had beans and pancakes and this way good cheese they have here and fried bananas) then we had another meeting and met our trainers. My trainer is Elder Tay as you already know, he is fromGuatemala he is so awesome he helps me out so much, he is also only like 5 ´5 and a 110 lbs hahahaha. So we meet our trainers then head back to the office to get our bags and then head out to our areas! Well since you know where my area is you may also know that it is 210 miles away from Teguc so I thought we were going to have to take a bus all the way out there but the APs needed to take some stuff out there for our new casa so we got to ride out there with them which was nice, but we had so much crap in that car!! hahaha and we didn’t get to leave till like 5 and we didn’t get there till like 10:00. Well Elder Bourne was one of the elders that drove us out there, we stayed in a house the missionaries had been living in but the lady that owned it wanted to move back in so the next day we moved all our stuff out and went to our new casa. Well I don’t have much time but I’m in the city of Catacamas , it is so awesome it’s some little cowboy town in the middle of the jungle. There is a small branch out here with about 86 members, they are all way awesome. I love it out here, the people are so nice. I will send some pics next week and I’ll try to get a letter off with more stuff about the area. The language is so hard I don’t understand anything but I know that it will come with time. I haven’t seen much with the political stuff going on here. Like I said I love it here. I’m so tired at night I barely get through planning and getting ready for bed at night before I’m out cold. There are roosters everywhere here, I think they are all broken too cause they like to make that horrible sound whenever they feel like in even at 3 in the morning and they don’t ever stop. There is a banana tree in our backyard and the person that lives behind us has a parrot that thinks it’s a rooster and it likes to talk. Well I’m out of time. I love and miss you guys so much, pray for me, I need it right now but I’m okay here. Like I said again I love you so much this work is true the church is true. May the Lord pore out all his blessings on you.

Love Elder Paulson