Saturday, August 4, 2012

Stake Conference

Dear Family,
Well we will be entering August pretty soon so you know what that means. School!! exciting for all of you. You still have a couple more weeks to enjoy your free time though so enjoy them. Im sure that time before school starts will go by much faster for me than it does for you. These weeks are flying these days. Ever since I became Senior comp after Guillen left everything has gone by alot faster because I have had alot more to worry about. It is tough but it keeps me busy. The preassure is on though to get a few baptisms before the end of this change on Aug 22. No one is ready but they could be by then. I just want to have a baptism for my kid elder Castillo.


Yesterday was a good little Sunday. It was district conference. Pretty much stake conference for them. We had to wake up before 530 to get to guapinol to invite and everything before 8 because at 8 we left in a bus full of about 100 people for the big stake center in choluteca. It was very fun to see so many members come out for the conference. It seems like members back home find excuses not to go to stake conference and attenend every other week while members here dont go until the confernce. We had doble the attendance than normal Sunday meetings. I cant tell if it is the work ive been doing with elder castillo or just the fact that it was a conference. Either way we will take it.


This change is kind of hard sometimes. It is harder to find new people cuz ive been here so long. It is also easier to just want to spend time with the people I already have grown to love and not look for new people because ive been here so long. I have some good friends down there in good old Guapinol and I like to be with them. Sometimes with them it is better to just spend time with them than teach big lessons on the scriptures because they are not as educated. I just do what I can for them, even if it isnt the typical missionary lesson. The important thing is that they know we care, and that they know God does too.


I love you all very much. Have a good little week.


The lush greenery of the coast of Honduras.




                                              AHHH!!! The comforts of home!!!!


                                                     LOVE this picture of my HANDSOME boy!!
Love Elder Comstock

The Deacon and the Tie

Well another week has passed. Not a ton has happened. It just went by too dang fast to tell you the truth. It feels like yesterday I was at the computer writing you and I dont have a ton to say. But I can tell you what comes to my mind I supose. We had interviews with President Herñandez this week and that went great. He is a great guy. I am grateful to have him as my mission president. He did tell me some interesting information that I may not finish the training of Elder Castillo since I have already been so long i Guapinnol. But he said nothing is sure yet so we will have to see what happens.

A good little story is about Nielson. He got baptized a couple of weeks ago and I was able to ordain him a Deacon. but he didnt have a tie. So I went to pick a tie for him and I saw a tie in my stack of ties that I have had a long time. Im pretty sure I got it when I turned 12. So I gave it to him. since he is now a Deacon and all. I am proud of him passing the sacrament now. Another one of my baptisms is set to get the Melkesidec priesthool this weekend so that will be exciting for him as weel. We have done a good job in my time here in Guapinol


Now the challenge is to keep doing a good job there. I want to keep finding people I just am not sure where to look. I am not too down about it but It seems so small and I know I havent talked to everyone but it feels like it. I know I will find more people though if I keep looking. I just gotta stay excited to keep looking. Thats where my comp comes in. He is new so he is very excieted to be here. I feel like we will find someone good this week.


Next week might go by just as fast but I hope Ill have more to write. I love you all so much and apreciate all you do.



Love Elder Comstock

Sucessful Week

Hey Famliy,
This was a fast week because it was a sucessful week. We had 4 baptisms on Saturday! It was so awesome. The most Ive had at one time so far. 2 of them are people we found contacting like 10 days ago that had already been to church and we just had to bring them back. The other 2 were 11 and 12 year old boys who are cousins. We are trying to work with their families to get them baptized as well but their parents are a little more difficult. It is interesting how happy they are for their kids to be going to church but how little they want to go themselves. But the coolest part was yesterday when I ordained the 12 year old as a Deacon. That was my first ordination of the priesthood so far. It was cool to do. Cool to do in Spanish. I wont ever forget it.


Well changes are this Wednesday. I will be interested to see who my new companion is. Elder Ordonez is out of here. The mini mission is over for him in 2 days. He was good for me though. We had a lot of sucess together. He was able to do the baptisms on Saturday too so that was really cool for him. I hope this month we have been together will help him get out on a real mission soon. I will also be interested to see if I leave Guapinol. Its probable that I stay because my comp is going, but ive been there awhile so there is a chance I could go. It would be my 4th change there and thats the longest that most missionaries stay in an area is 4 changes. So i would be maxing out in time there. We will see though. I find out tomorrow night!


4th of July was a sucess as well. You will see the pictures when I send pictures next. We had a nice little fire and roasted hot dogs. ate munchies. talked in english. It was a good time. Right out in front of my house in the street haha. Well the truth is we had to do it on the 5th but at least we celebrated. The 4th was more about celebrating my 6 months. I really just wanna forget about time until I hit a year so hopefully I can. Its hard sometimes though to not think about it. I dont like to think about it though. Anyways thanks for everything. I love you all so much!

Love Elder Comstock






Is It Christmas?

Well today feels like Christmas! I got the package!! Thank you so much for the contents of that package. The Nike socks are definetly my favorite, and after that the candy will last me a little while so thanks. The cass and callie letters were a nice spin on it so I thank you very much for all of it. I was so excited when I got it I just opened it here in the Internet cafe. I couldnt wait til I got home.

Well on Tuesday night my DL called me and told me I had to be in Teguc at the presidents house at 8 am the next day for the Trainers meeting. Yep Im training. So i went at like 3 am on a bus with Elder Ordonez to drop him off and pick up my kid. Yes I am a dad now in the mission. His name is Elder Castillo and he is from Mexico. I have the privelage to train him as a missionary. It is pretty exciting for me and he is very excited to be out here so Im happy to have him. Training is for 3 months so It looks like I will be in Guapinol until October! My mission is quickly becoming the Honduras Guapinol mission. It should be ok though because I love that little town.


Wednesday picking up my comp was an interesting expirence. It took me back to 4 months ago when I was in that excact same seat brand new in the mission. I have done and learned so much since then. I hope I will be able to help my comp do as much and learn as much as I did starting out. RIding in the bus back to the south was a wierd feeling because I was so familiar with everything and I could see how uncomforatable my companion was. I was probably way worse when I showed up cuz at least he speaks spanish haha. I remeber driving in so bewildered and my first week was just a blur to be honest. I think my comp had a good first week. We should have sucess together because he is very excited to work.


I got some fotos loading up right now but they are going a little slow so hopefully they all make it to you before I have to go. thank you so much for the package and letters and emails and everything you do for me. The mission is pretty hard, but it gets alot easier with all the support you give me.Thank you so much for everything.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Raccoons and Scorpians But the Work Still Goes On.

Dear Comstock Family Reuinon,
I know that I send this to Mom Dad and sisters but I knowing my wonderful mother she will be sharing this with the whole reuinon. That is fine though. First off I´m sorry I couldnt attend. I have some other obligations here. But I think you all understand! I had a crazy week so I will just tell you about it.


So here is what happens when you dont pay the light bill. They cut the cords to your power outside of your house. I was waiting on some money that I will get today to pay the lights but I waited too long so they cut our power. I didnt want to wait but with my mini missionary I didnt have enough so I was waiting. I called our landlord and he said not to worry and he would be there the next day. So he showed up the next day and cut the rubber off the wires and stuck them together with tape. There were some serious sparks. It looked very dangerous, but he was not scared or anything. Im sure he had done it before. After he fixed it for us the lights worked. I had to go pay them with all that I had so I had to take some money out from home to survive. It was necessary. But no need to worry the lights are back on and we are good. It was a little lesson on paying the bills on time.


Other cool part about this week was the animals I ran into. In Guapinol there was a racoon. I guess they live in the trees somewhere or something. It was a pet racoon though so we were talking to the owner and playing with it. That was fun until it climbed up my body and tried to bite me. Dont worry it didnt get me. The owner said it didnt bite but It was tryin to get me haha. The next day we found a scorpion in our bathroom. That was a little scary. My comp decided to light a candle and spray bug spray on the candle to burn the scorpion. It was like a flamethrower. The scorpion caught on fire and died. I think I was more afraid of the scorpion than the tarantulas. Also yesterday we found a giant frong living in a little shed we have in our backyard. That was a nice little suprise. We just swept it right out of there.


Now to the missionary part of what Im doing. We always have to Abrir la boca. Which means open the mouth. It is basicly contacting and we have to contact a certian amout of people each day. It does not work very well to tell the truth. The baptisms I have found are mostly all references and family of members. But we do it anyway. On Saturday we went to this group of people on the poarch and asked them if we could share a message with them. Natrualy half of them left but the ones that stayed were the kids and thier Grandmother. We talked to them and some of the kids were already baptized and inactive. The grandmother and one of the kids was not. They had gone to church months ago but missionaries stopped visiting them for some reason. We taught them a lesson and challenged the grandmother and the kid to  be baptized this Saturday. They said yes. It was the first time in 4 months out here that Abrir la Boca worked for me. I sometimes just want to look for references all day but I know Abrir la Boca is something I need to do as well. Especially with this expierence. We have a couple other baptisms for this weekend as well so I will work hard this week to prepare them all for Saturday.


I will be celebrating on Wednesday the 4th with my ZL from the US and I will be celebrating my 6 month mark. yeah I know 6 months already. It has happened fast and I know it will keep going faster. I am taking advantage of all the time I have. Have a wonderful week together as a family. I dont think I realized how much I loved spending time with you all until I was put here in the mission. Now I cant. But it is only temporary. I will be back. Take advantage of that time together because oneday when you cant be there you will miss it. I love you all so much. Thank you so much for all of the support you have given me through the years and through this mission.





Love Elder Comstock

My New Mini Missionary


Well this was definatly one of the coolest weeks i´ve had out here. I spent Monday thru Friday in Cedeño with the zls right. Elder Meyer is such a cool guy. We had such a good time down there. Those zone leaders have a lot of stuff they have to do so we spent a lot of time on buses goin around southern Honduras. Elder Meyer and I had a good time in those buses. We have some similar stories. And we had to eat this gross clam soup called cruilles and it was made in clam blood. Not my favorite food in the world. But I slept in their house in my hamock for the week so that was a good time as well.
But on Friday it was back to work. We went up to Teguc to pick up  Elder Ordóñez. He is another mini missionary from Teguc. This one is different though. Never been to an MTC, the Temple, not set apart, Is 18 years old until November, and didnt come with preach my gospel. So we have a lot to learn. It is cool though because he is willing to learn. He speaks Spanish English French and Latin so he is a really smart guy. I like it cuz we can speak in English at the House. He is a great comp so im glad I have him. I should learn alot the rest of this change. He will only be here with me until July 11th. After that, new comp again. Oh yeah another cool thing is that I met his family at the mission office. That was really cool and Ill send you the picture sometime. The computer here is rejecting my camera.
So I havent had too many results teaching lately but its really because I had a bad comp, I wasnt in the area for a week, and im learning hands on how to lead an area and basicly train. Its cool though because I will learn it. I still feel so new out here with a ton of responsibilty but I know I can do it. The APs had a capacitation this week and one of them taught an amazing lesson. It had 2 video clips that took me back to football days. The first one was Rocky 6 when Rocky says, Its not about how hard you can hit, but how many hits you can take and keep on fighting, thats how winning is done. That was one that Coach miller always showed us before the season. Its true out here. If I can get through all these tough times I will have sucess I know it. And the other video was of a football practice where the big stud on the team said that they were gonna lose that week. The coach then told him to get on the line and bear crawl with another player on his back to the 50 yrd line. The player was like, I cant do that, your crazy. But the coach told him to do it blindfolded to make sure he was giving his all. Than the coach had him crawl, and crawl and crawl. and the kid ended up going all the way to the End zone without knowing because he was blindfolded. He though he couldnt go 50 but he went 100. It was so good. It made me miss football pretty bad. But most of all it helped me realize that I dont really know my potential out here. The Lord does and thats why he gives me these trials. I might think I can only go to the 50 but He knows I can make it all the way. Wow football is so legit. I learned so many other lessons out there that have helped shape me into the missionary and man I am becoming. The coaches were so right when they said we would miss it. It was such an amazing expirence. It has helped me so much though and I am grateful for it. Feel free to Forward this to coach Hux, Miller, Miller, or anyother coach whose Email you have. So that they know I apreciate all they did. Thanks.
Ok last thing. I am a straight up tarantula hunter. I have found 3 in my house in the last 2 weeks and I always catch them and kill them. It is scketchy because they are huge and I dont know if they are dangerous. But I dont want them in my house so I have to catch them. My comps are too scared to catch them so I have to. It is cool though because I am their master. It has been a good week as you can tell. I hope to find more success in the work this week and the rest of this change, but I am enjoying my mission just so you know. I love it! Love you all too. Happy fathers day yesterday Dad, Grandpa J, and Grandpa C.
Love Elder Comstock

Thank you for sending me this letter.  It couldn't have come at a better time.  I really appreciate it.  Jordan is a special young man and I am glad to see he is doing so well. 
Thanks again!


Skyler 



:
I have told you this before... I know winning is important to a coach but to a mother of a former player of yours there was much more taught on the football by field by you.  Jordan has mentioned football before in previous letters about how hard some of the work and service he does is and how football helped to teach him to work hard.  But this letter I thought was REALLY good and he asked me to forward it to you.  I am looking for Carter's address so I can forward it to him too.  Thank you again for the time you spend with these boys.  You DO make a difference!!!!!  Becky


Date: Mon, Jun 18, 2012 at 1:44 PM




                                                                  THE SOUP!!!





                                                                         You did it!!!
                                              Jordan's new mini missioanary and his family.


                                                    Taking Elder Ordonez to Monjaras.


                                                              



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