The Holiday Season Has Begun.

Well I think you should all know how i spent my thanksgiving last thursday. I fasted. We didnt have any special food or anything so I figured Id rather eat nothing than beans and platanos on thanksgiving. But the coolest thing happend on Friday when I went on divisions with Elder Germaine in the zls area. A family there gave us leftovers from there thanksgiving. Yes I ate turkey and rolls and potates. It was great. It was lucky too. I wasnt expecting anything. But the actual day and fasting was good as well. In district meeting that morning I had my whole district bring their journals and I had them write a grateful entry. I ended up writing for 3 pages or so. You will see it when I get home i supose.

Better news. Jeny got bapized on saturday!  I dont know if I have mentioned her before in my emails, but she has been a long time investigator. I found her on my first day here in this area with Elder Ruiz. She went to church with us that first weekend and has been going to church ever since. But she had so many struggles. Lost her job, smoking cofee, bad friends, and a very difficult past. So she was not very sure about baptism for the longest time. She even told me once she was afraid of baptism just because of the cold water (it was freezing by the way) but that was just another one of her excuses. We kept working with her though to help her drop all of the bad and keep striving for the good. She has become a worthy member of the church. It was such a cool baptism. I was so happy.  You can see it in the pictures.

This week was a good week. Now we have the monster of december lurking ahead. Christmas will try to bring me down with homesickness. 5 weekends will put the preassure on to baptize a ton. My Nicaraguan comp may drive me crazy. And the accomplisment of a year in the mission will try to distract me. But im not afraid of any of those things. It is things like this on the mission that help me gain more confidence for the rest of life. I know I will be fine here in this month and if we work hard we will come out on top. I just am so grateful for all of you and your constand support out here that you give me. And dont miss me too bad with this christmas season, if your lucky you may get to see my face in less than a month ;) I love you family!

Love Elder Comstock

 We sent Jordan 25 cards for his countdown to Christmas.  Many family members, friends, former teachers and coaches wrote Jordan notes on the cards and got to open a card each day till Christmas. 

Happy Birthday Son

 This is the letter I wrote to Jordan this week and the response he sent me...

Happy Birthday tomorrow.  I can't believe I will not get to give you a hug on your birthday. Tomorrow, your birthday, is a big day for our country but really more importantly for me it marks 20 years since all my dreams came true.  Really, my whole life all I really wanted to do was to grow up and get married and be a mom.  I remember Novemember 5, 1992 like it was yesterday.  I woke up early in the morning and went into labor.  Dad and I went to the hospital.  We spent ALL day there.  Finally at 1:11am on Nov. 6th you were born.  I remember I should have been tired that night after being in labor all day but I could not sleep.  I was SOOOO excited that I was actually a mother.  I made myself wait until 7:00am to go to the nursery to get you because I was worried the nurses would be mad if I came any sooner.  Silly of me I know.  :)  Grandma Felt and Grandma and Grandpa Hart came to see  you in the hospital.  And Grandma Jordan flew in from El Paso and helped dad and I bring you home.  When we were all getting ready to leave the hospital and bring you home grandma Jordan picked you up to carry you out of the hospital and the nurse told her she should let me, the mother, carry you out!  She was so excited and loved you so much at first sight just as dad and I did.  I bore my testimony Sunday in church and talked about how being a mother has brought me the greatest joys and the greatest sorrows my life has ever known.  You serving a mission has done that too.  Having you be in Honduras has truly brought me the greatest sorrow because I just miss you so much.  I miss being able to hug you, I miss you putting your arm around me.  I miss your laugh, and your smile.  I miss being able to talk to you.  I will miss making you breakfast tomorrow.  BUT more important than my sorrow in having you gone is my joy in you doing what is right.  You lived your entire life in a way that prepared you to do just what you are doing right now.  I have said it before and I will say it again.  There is no where else I would rather you be than in Honduras.  I KNOW that you are where the Lord wants you and doing what He has planned for you at this time in your life.  Thank you Jordan for being an example to me and to your dad and your sisters.  Remember to always follow the mission rules and listen to the Holy Ghost. If you do these things you will be safe and will bless others, us, and yourself.  I hope you have a fantastic 20th birthday.  Thank you for being the son that you are and bringing such great joy to my life.  I LOVE YOU!! MOM

The picture is of you on your blessing day.  Both grandpa Felt and Hart were there in the circle as dad gave you a name and a blessing.  It was a great day.  Grandma Comstock sent you your cute outfit.  I know your great grandpa's look after you still today.  They both loved missionary work.  :)

Hey mom! I loved your dear elder this week that I got. I also loved your presents for my birthday. I guess I will be 20 tomorrow. I should feel the exact same that I do right now. You will be ok without hugging me on my 20th bday. You have planned on not hugging me on my 20th bday since I was born anyways. You never wanted to see me on 20 AND 21 haha. I love you so much mom. I am tring to work on some letters and stuff for yall. I love you and will mis you tomorrow too! thanks for everything though! Love Elder Comstock

You Say It's MY Birthday!!!!!

Good Morning Comstock Family,

Well today I woke up and decided to start celebrating my birthday. I just dont want to be too distracted tomorrow. I opened the gifts and I am very grateful for them. Thank you! Especially for the razors. I can change mine a little more often now. The  tie is a really nice tie as well. I like how there is a scripture on it. That is really cool. Also thank you for the flag. I will be hanging that in a very special place in my house later today. Thank you so much though. The presents were great. And the cutouts that you made of yourselves were also cool. I have some pictures that I will send you. Thank you for everything. I think Im gonna make the cake on thursday for our district meeting. It is Elder Moores birthday on the 9th so we will celebrate together. Today Im hoping to eat in a nice place like chilis today for lunch. 

Well we also had an amazing week last week. We had 2 more baptisms this week. You will be able to see in the pictures from the baptisms, that they are the same people that went to the temple with us a few weeks ago. They were 2 men. Marco and Juan Carlos. The both have girlfriends that are members of the church. They are both 2 of the coolest people I have baptized so far. They are actually like my friends. It was really cool teaching them. Yesterday we went to teach Marco and we ended up talking the whole time about other stuff like school and life. Im glad that Im comforatable enough in spanish to have friends in spanish now haha. But Juan Carlos speaks english too so he has been even more of a freind to me. He has had some tough times lately. He was going to get baptized on the 24th of november but he said he had an answer to a prayer last week and needed to be baptized sooner. So we did it last week. He was all ready and everything. It was a cool experience. 

On saturday morning we went and served with a bunch of other misisonaries. I chopped down a field of 6ft weeds all on my own. It was a tough job, but a goodtime with my machete. after that I molded a brick stove with mud. Elder Tarver and I made that stove look pretty. It was a cool service experience because the family that we did it for is one of the poorest that Ive seen here. and they werent home when we did it. So it was a suprise for them when they got home to their new stove and clean yard. It felt good to serve like that. Missionary work is like that as well. Anyways I am a very happy person these days out here in the mission. Thank you for all of the support that you have given me and especially the love for my birthday. I love you so much family!

Love Elder Comstock

Officially a Honduran!

Well another week has flown by here in Tegucigalpa and it was another great one. First off I would like to thank madee for the package that I got on her birthday! I know I should have sent her something but Instead I got a present from you all on her birthday. Dont worry, Im not going to open the gifts untill the 5th or 6th. Thank you so much though family! It sounds like the 2 birthdays that the girls had were great. Sorry I missed them. I would have loved to have been there. I was pretty busy this week though. On Friday I was in the office and I got my residency. I officially am a resident of Honduras. I have an ID and everything so that was cool. The pakage came after that and I opened that up pretty quick. Thank you all so much!

That night we also had 2 baptisms and they were amazing. They lady from last week, Janet, and her sister, Berta got baptized. It was one of the most spiritual and amazing baptisms that I{ve had here in the mission. The coolest part was that Douglas, Janets husband, baptized her. We ordained him a priest before the baptism so that he was able to do that. and now we just have to wait until next halloween so that they can get sealed. Another great thing about the baptism was that 5 investigators came. and the Aps had 6 more. and with all of the members in our very supportive ward the room was very full. We have another baptism this friday thats coming up so that should be great as well. Then the next baptisms wont be untill the 24th of November because we are planning a big baptism with all of the missionaries in the city. That will be very exciting as well.

So I went on divisions with Elder Houston on thursday because it was his last day that he could speak english. He just hit 18 months and has decided to only speak in spanish until he finishes. I think he is crazy. I hope he is able to do that though. I dont think I would ever do that. Spanish hasnt given me too many difficulties so I dont feel like I need to. I know Im constantly improving though. I would like to be really really good by the end of this mission so maybe at some point I will go crazy lilke Elder Houston. For now Im fine.  It was a great week from the baptism and everything though. I have been writting a ton in my journal lately so we will have a nice time reading that someday when I get home. I think I will need a new one in my Christmas package. Ive been writtting a lot more here in my 2nd area.  Right now the Hermanas from my district are cooking some mexican food since they  are both from mexico so that should be great. I love you all. Have a great week!

Love Elder Comstock

Tegucigalpa Honduras Temple and Singing in the Rain!

Family!

 

Hey how was Denver? I bet it was a good time. I would have liked to have been with you all for the weekend. I hope I wasn´t missed or anything. I was really busy here in Honduras. Last week was crazy. And amazing

 

On friday we started to invite everyone we were teaching to a family night at president Hernadez´s house for saturday night. We had a few that said they would come, but there was one that we especially needed to come. Her name is Janet. Her husband is a member but she has other siblings that arent. We needed them to go. She has been going to church for 4 months now and still hasnt gotten baptized. She is completely ready and has been for awhile. She is just so nervouse about it. I figured president could help us with it. So on Saturday night we were at the meeting spot and it was raining like crazy and the bus was late. She hadnt gotten there yet when the bus came so I ran throught the dark rainy streets of Tegucigalpa to her house to bring her. When we got to her house she had said that it was raining so thats why she didnt go. But we got her to come and went in a taxi to presidents house. He gave a very spitual message and after that we went to the Temple!! But it was really late so we only got to drive by. We couldnt get out to take pictures. But after that I asked her about baptism and now  her and her sister are getting baptized this friday!!

 

Then there was Sunday. We had plans to go to the Temple as a ward on Sunday afternoon, so we got to go again. It was raining all day but we went anyways. We had a devotional there at the temple and I sung with Elder Moore and I played the harmonica as well. That was really cool. And then I got to take pictures with all of the families that we are teaching. They might not look that good because of all the rain, but it was an awesome activity. I finally got to see the Temple!!! It is so amazing. I am eagarly waiting for the date of the dedication. We still dont know it yet but it should be in the first third of next year. It should be amazing!!! I hope you enjoy all of the pictures. I hope you enjoy your week as well. I love you all!

 

 

Love Elder Comstock

Valle de Angels/Good Days and Bad Days

Hey Family,

So we just got down the mountains from a place called valle de angles. Or angle valley. It was a hike and we had a very good time up there. There was a big old waterfall that we got to go see and I have a bunch of pictures but I dont have my cord to my camera so I guess I cant send them. Its ok though since I just sent pics last week. Someday you will all see my cool waterfall pictures, just not today. I also bought a hat and a few other things up there. There were a ton of gift shops so we got to look around in them. It was a great p day.

We had Interviews with President Hernandez again this week on friday and those were amazing. Usually when he intreviews us he just asks us how we are and if we need anything and stuff but friday was different. He made a cool comparison with missionaries and temples. When we get set apart it is like we are dedicated, like a temple. With time the temples get older and need to be rededicated. Thats what this interview was. To help us rededicate ourselves to the rules and working hard in the mission. Not that im a bad missionary, but we can always improve. So for the interview he asked us the temple interview questions and determined if we were worthy or not and told us to rededicate ourselves. It was really cool. Plus yesterday in church the high counsler from our ward announced that there is a date for the temple dedication, but it wont be revealed until stake conference on the 2nd weekend of november. Soon we will know the date!

As the work goes on in the mission there are always god days and bad days. I wish I could tell you that they were all good but they arent. Some times we witness heartbreaking things. I would never tell you about that stuff, but I promise you that it hurts. I try to do my best always but that doesnt ever guarentee us anything. Especially here in the city in the capital. It is very difficult compared to the south where I was before. I want to be baptizing thousands like alma but here it is difficult. I know that isnt the only measure of success but I also know that it is a good feeling to be at a baptism. I just want to see my investigators get there and they all have a few problems. We will keep working hard with them and see where we can get to. I'm hoping we arrive in the baptismal font.

Love Elder Comstock

Pday Hike and Ziplining

             Now this is my boy!  They silly boy I remember wearing his LeBron jersey! 

The City That Currently Holds Jordan's Heart... Tegucigalpa

Elder Ruiz's Birthday