Lovin the Area

Oct. 2, 2013

This was actaually a pretty normal week for us. We only went on divisions with other missionaries twice, which is rare. Usually we have to do it 3 or 4 times. We taught a training meeting twice. I got to go out and work with 2 of my good friends that came here with me, Elder Dockendorf and Elder Oveson. We enjoyed that. I had an interview with President Hernandez for our normal interviews every couple of months. It looks like I will probably be finishing my mission in my current area. That is something that we talked about. That would mean that I will end up serving a year in this ward. and 15 months in this stake. I have no complaints though. I love it.

One of the coolest parts about being in the same area so long is seeing the progression of the people. Of the members, converts, less actives, and investigators. It can also be hard sometimes, because they don´t always progress the way that we want them to. But the good thing is that tonight we will see 5 of them, and thier families, progressing in the right direction.

We have been working with the recient convert couple Ramon and Jezany. They were converts of the last APs and they were not attending church. We were working to reactivate them and get Ramon the arronic priesthood. Ramon has 2 little brothers Jair and Keny and a little cousin Jason that live with him. So when we started vistiting the kids starting wanting to go to church with us. They are 3 crazy kids. I love them though. There has been many ups and downs in our time working with this family. Today is the baptism of the 3 kids. Their older brother Ramon will baptize them. I have known Ramon since last year when he was an investigator of the other APs. He still has a long, long way to go. But this is a good step for him and for his family. The rest of his famliy is a little tough. They dont listen to us or support him much. But we hope to see them all at the baptism tonight.

We have also been working with one of my old investigators named Maria. She is 12 years old and lives in a house full of recient converts. She has wanted to get baptized since before August 2012, but her mother Pati would never give her permision to do so. She faithfully attended church meetings and mutual though for the past year. 2 weeks ago we told her mom Pati that we wanted to teach Maria every day to reveiw the lessons and help her be 100 percent ready for baptism. She said that was fine. So we have visited her every day, and taught her with her mother present. We were preparing her to be baptized today, and we would always joke with her mom about her getting baptized too, but she never said much about it. Untill thursday night when Elder Quevedo was teaching her. I was out of the area with Elder Oveson, but I got a text from my companion that said that Maria and Pati were getting baptized. To be honest, I didnt believe him. I thought that he was just joking with me. But when he got home that night he told me that it is true. That Pati decided to get baptized with her daughter. I cannot tell you how happy that made me. You have no idea how many times I have gone to her house to teach her and other members of her family. She has always listened but been hesitant to join us. She has gone to church a few times but not consistiently.  But she said that now is the time for her to join her famliy in the church. 

Anyways, I am happy. I never like to talk about baptism before they happen, because anything can happen. But Elder Jensen did all five interviews last night so it looks like every thing will go great today. I wanted to share it with you today because next saturday I wouldve forgotten. So we have 5 baptisms today. I would give all of the credit to my companion who is the best missionary in the mission and helps me always work hard, and to the Lord who has helped us have sucess in our own little area while we are spending many days and hours outside of it to serve and help the other missionries. I love you all family. Thank you for everything.

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Another Fast Week

September 21, 2013


Well things will be very very different at home when I get there I supose if its not even the same house! I hope everything is going well with the moving. Sorry that I cant help out. Im sure that you can find enough high school kids with nothing better to do on a Saturday morning though. That is exciting though that you are now living somewhere else.

This week went by very very fast. That is normal now though. We continued with our training meetings with 3 more zones. Uyuca, Esperanza, y Valle de Angeles. That went well. We have seen some positive responses from the missionaries. I know that there are many new missionaries that want to be successful and work hard, but if their trainer doesnt teach them how to do it, it can be a little hard for them. I think the things that we are teaching to all of the missionaries will help them out to know how to work harder and more efficiently. Because truth be told, contacting (knocking doors or in the street) has not been my most effictive tool out here to find positve people to teach. There is a better way. With the members, less actives, and converts. I am lucky enough to be in an area that I have been in for 9 months now. I have a very good relationship with the members and I know the San Miguel like the back of my hand. So we have been doing well in our area with teaching and finding this week. We are really working hard to get a few more baptisms next week so we will see how that goes. 

I spent 3 straight days away from my companion. That is kind of normal for us because we work so much with the other missionaries. I went with Elder Reyes on wednesday and that was just like old times. He is definetly one of my best friends out here. I love the kid. I spent the next 2 days with Elder Lawson and Elder Fielding. 2 excellent young ZLs. They just seem so much better than I was when I had the same amount of time that they do. The future is bright for the mission honduras tegucigalpa.

This coming week we will keep going with the same. I am in a good rythm right now. I wake up and exercise, I eat breakfast, I get ready, I study or go teach a zone something, I go out to work all afternoon with whoever I am to go with in that day, and I meet up with my companion at night to report how things went. We go to bed, and do it all over again. I have been trying to eat healthy foods and that makes me feel good. I dont think I could handle a fast food meal anymore. I would feel pretty sick. Next week will go really well I am sure. I am enjoying some rest today because I am pretty exausted, but I am happy. I love you all family. Love Elder Comstock

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Love It!

I'm an American Through and Through!!

The View From my House

Going to The "Dirty South"

Sept.14,2013

The southern part of our mission is the poorest, dirtiest, and hottest part of the mission. I spent 6 months there at the start of my mission so I can appreciate what they are doing down there. We spent the whole week down there. I actually just rolled into Tegucigalpa about an hour ago. It was a very long and fun trip. We taught 4 different training meetings to 6 different zones. We got to see all of the missionaries in the south. During the next 4 weeks we will teach the same training meeting to the remaining 11 zones in the city and east.

The training is to try to focus more on families as a mission. We had decent results last month, and ok results so far this month, but we can do much much better. What we are lacking is families. If we only are teaching kids and single people we will never baptize as many people as we possibly can. So we came up with a plan to find and baptize more families. I feel like we have some experience, I got to go to a sealing, and my companion has had 2 famlies get sealed that he taught. So we want all of the missionaries to expereince what we have experienced. They can and they will, if they will just be obident and follow the plan. We are trying really hard to have another family baptism before October 16th when Elder Quevedo goes home. 

I drove the whole trip. I have now driven to all of the zones of this mission. It feels good to get to drive for awhile. I was able to talk to my companion a lot in the car too so that was good. I think my companion was a little discouraged because we get a long and all but we are not best friends or anything. I never noticed or cared, cuz that is just how I am. I thought we were fine. But I need to work on it to help him feel good about everything in his last few weeks. He is a really good missionary. Easliy my best companion and example that I have had out here. I can tell he is not focused on going home. He is set on finishing focused and working.  Like I said, he is a great example to me. I am glad that we get another month together. 

It was a crazy week with a lot of heat, rain, work, and fun. I wish that I could tell you every little detail, but I have a lot of other things to do today since I spent all morning driving back. I feel like my Pday is never a real and complete one. It is ok though. I am still very happy. I love you family!

Love Elder Comstock

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Not Moms favorite Letter!!!:(

The change week went by very quickly. We spent alot of monday and tuesday in the airport. We actually got to see an elder off from my ward. He was heading to the mtc in guatemala and we were getting there to drop off somebody. It was lucky. I love that guy. He will be a great missionary. THe rest of the changes went very well on wednesday. All of the elders are now in there new areas. I am still with Elder Quevedo. We keep trying to serve and help the mission.

The internet was out all day in the office. and we had to wait for it. I am sorry but I have to go. Nobody had time to write.Sorry! I love you all so much. I will write more next week.

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Big Day for the Mission

September 2,

This is a big day for our mission. We did not start off the month well. But if we want to finish with the results that we had hoped for for this month we must have a very large sum of baptisms this week. We have enough people with a baptismal date to break the record of baptisms in one week. We will have to do it in order to have over 200 baptisms for the 6th month in a row. I have no doubt that we will complete that. Our mission is looking to finish this month strong. and start the month of september next week a lot better than we started august. We need to be consistent. That is one of my big responsibilties as AP. To verify with the zone leaders on how many baptisms we will have every week, and every month. And to push them to reach thier goals. And it is not simply because we want to be the highest baptizing mission in central america (which we were in july). It is because we are seeking to help as many people as possible to enter into baptismal waters. I see so much potential in our mission to help even more people, so my job is to push them with higher goals in order to do so.

On wednesday we had a trianing meeting with all of the new missionaries and thier trainers. SInce June over 40 missionaries have entered the mission, so there were over 80 missionaries there. There were more sisters than elders. The meeting went well though. President Hernandez was not able to attend because he had a tooth pulled and was recovering. So Elder Quevedo and I were in charge of everything. It went really well though. I practiced teaching with the new elders. Most are from the states and are learning spanish still. I just put them on the spot and made them teach. That is the best way to learn. After that we rotated and I had the trainers with me. I did the exact same thing with them. Not because they need to practice teaching, It is so that they will practice with their new missionaries. My trainer was great and all, but he never practiced with me. I turned out ok, but imagine if we would have accelerated that process. That is what I want the new people to do. Become great teachers, and as soon as possible. I hope that they can learn from our past mistakes, and be much better missionaries than I am and the rest of my generation. 

The rest of the week was pretty normal. I will have a baptism on tuesday. Her name is Amanda. She is about 50 yrs old and has a son who is 17 named Juvinee. He has been a member for 4 or 5 years and has always wanted his mom to join him. She never really wanted to though. I actually taught her for the first time about a year ago. She is finally ready for baptism though. I am very happy about that. It has been a great experince to be in the same area that I was in a year ago. She wants to be baptized on Tuesday becaue it is her sons birthday. He will baptize her. It will be amazing. I have seen that so many people have progressed more and more towards the gospel in that time. She is one of them. There are also others that have not progressed at all in that time. They rejected the gospel the first time and their life is the same or worse than it was before. And they sill reject it. It is a sad thing.

Well I love you family. It has officially been a year since I left Guapinol and I got the the 30 for the first time. It has also been about 2 years since I opened my mission call. Crazy right? It has gone by very quickly. I have loved it though. 

Love Elder Comstock

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Letter to Grandma and Grandpa as they prepare for their mission.

August  18, 2013

Grandpa and Grandma,

I am very happy to hear that you will be enterning the MTC so soon. I hope that you are as excited as I was to go there. I loved my stay there. Im sure that you wont be there for anywhere near as long as I was, but you will enjoy it. I know that the number of Elder and Sister missionaries as gone up a ton since last october. I wonder if that also had an effect on how many senior couples are serving. Our mission only has one senior couple but they dont work with us: They are in charge of the churches perpetual fund.  Anyways, I was very happy to hear that you would be joining me out here in the mission field. I know that you will help many people in mississippi. 

You will have to send me a letter or an email with details on all of your responsibilities next month once you have been out there for awhile. I cant wait to hear about all that you are doing. It will be very different from what I am doing I am sure, but It will still be exactly what the lord needs for you. You wont have as many rules as I do. Lucky you. I am actually very used to the rules by now so I dont mind them. In fact, they have helped me alot through my time out here. It will be weird when I finish and I have to go to normal life. I am glad that I still have 4 more months before I have to start worrying about that. 

The time passes by very quickly. You will see that once you get out there. We are just so busy as missionaries. It is the best. It is just wierd to look back and see how far I have come. By the time you leave I will be about to hit 20 months as a missionary. That is more time than you will even serve I think. (Yours is 18 months right?) But when I see all of the pictures, journal entries, and people, I cant believe that it has been that long. I am glad that I have had all of my trials and difficulties that I had throughout the first year of my mission. The second year has been full of a lot less tears, and a lot more smiles. Many better companions, the ability to communicate with ease to anyone that I need to, the success that we have had as a mission, and the changes that I have seen in so many peoples lives. So dont worry if It takes you a little to ajust to the mission, all of the struggles help so much for the rest of your time. The Lord prepares us for our final year and months, to truly become the great missionaries that he knows that we can be. 

I like saying we. I feel a sort of brotherhood knowing that you will be missionaries just like me very soon. Its about time that someone from the family joins me! I know that dallin will serve and maybe even Whitney. I will encourage her to do so once I get home and she is getting closer to 19. Your example in going out on a mission will serve them, and the rest of the younger girls, in many ways over the next 18 months. I truly support Elder Hollands statement when he said in october 2011, " Those little darlings will be just fine, and I promise you will do things for them in the service of the Lord that, worlds without end, you could never do if you stayed home to hover over them. What greater gift could grandparents give their posterity than to say by deed as well as word, “In this family we serve missions!”"

It is the truth. In this family we do serve misisons. And you 2 are the example. Thank you for always being the example. You have always helped and supported me in everything that I have ever done, but never have you supported me as much as you have in my mission. Thank you for the help that you have given me monthly that will allow me and my parents to send me off to school after the mission and not have to worry about the money, because I didnt have to spend all of mine and thiers to be here. Thank you so much. I feel so blessed. I know I have not been much of a personal writter, but I hope that you have enjoyed my weekly emails. They are written to each and every one of my family members. Anyways, thank you for everything Grandma and Grandpa Jordan. You are the best Grandparents that a Grandson could ever ask for. Good luck with your talks tomorrow. I cant wait to hear from you and know how things are in mississippi. I love you so much.

Love, Elder Comstock

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Back to Guapinol

I just got back from a trip to the south. I have been on a bus for 4 hours and I am feeling kind of sick. I must´ve eaten something down there. I will be fine though. I started my last journal this week. I have filled up 3 already.

Tuesday morning I spent in the office working on a presentation for zone confernce next week. It is going to be a good conference. I am excited to teach the entire mission over a 3 day period. I have a few videos that we will be watching and I have prepared a power point. Wish me luck. After that I headed down to the south for a week. We got there at 9 o clock so we couldnt do much on tuesday.

Wednesday I met up with Elder Dockendorf and Mendoza for divisions with them. I went with them a couple weeks ago. Their area is so incredible that I had to go back. We ate an iguana for dinner that night. Next time I send pictures you will see that. It was pretty good. 

Thursday I went with a different zone. We walked, and walked, and walked, and walked. They were both new in their area so they kept geting lost. We probably walked like 8 miles. We made our own fun as we walked though. 

Friday was the coolest day of the trip. I went back to GUAPINOL!!!! that was really really cool. Everyone is doing great out there. I will tell you the biggest guapinol news next week, but it was really good to get to see everyone and help the elders out there.

Today I woke up sick to my stomach but I had to come back so we are here now. I made it on the bus. I will probably just work on my presentation for next week and rest untill our baptisms tonight. We should have 1 and possibly2 from our own area. Our ward supports us a lot while we are on our ap trips. I love you family. Have fun getting ready for school!!!

Love Elder Comstock

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220 Baptisms!

August 4, 2013

I had a good week this week. It was very busy.

On Monday we had all of the mission dats that showed us that we had 220 baptisms in our mission in july. That is the most that we have ever gotten in a month with only 4 sundays. So we did a good job. We are definetly getting better as a mission and we are getting closer to our bigger goals. 

On Wednesday we had our monthly meeting with the zls and the sister training leaders. The meeting is a lot bigger than it used to be. There used to only be 22 zls in the mission. Due to all of the growth of missionaries in our mission there are now 34. Plus 6 sisters that are in charge of the sisters. There is a lot of leadership in our mission. That is a good thing. I had to teach them something and I talked about goals and we set goals as a mission. I also talked about being realistic with our goals. That is something that our mission is not as good at right now. We are working on it though.

After the meeting I got in the truck and loaded 3 beds into the back. I drove them out to Danli with the zls from Danli. So we went for a road trip out to Danli. My companion stayed in Tegucigalpa to work with zls here in the city. We made it safely. It was a fun trip. That night we had a few hours to work but the power went out and we werent able to do much. 

Thursday we had zone meetings in Danli with the 2 zones out there. That went really well. Those are 2 really good zones. They seem to be ready to have a good month in August. We took some beds to the sisters house after the meeting. We helped some other sisters move after that. I had planned on being done with all of that around 4 to go to work with the missionaries. But it wasnt that easy. The truck alarm started going off and we tried everythingwe could possibly think of to get it to stop. I was with 2 elders who were educated about cars and they were not sure why the alarm was going off. We ended up disconnecting the entire alarm system because we couldnt get it to stop. The car has been fine since then, but we are still unsure about what happened. I guess that the same thing had happened a few months ago with the same truck. It is a nice truck, it just has that glitch I guess. I ended up having to drive the missionaries that helped me out to their area because they missed the bus. I wasnt back and working until 7. It was not how I had hoped to spend my day, but it happens.

Friday I got up and drove to la zona valle verde. That is one of the few zones that I had not been to before. It is a little district out in the east side of honduras made up of tiny branches. The missionaries are doing a good job out there. That is where elder meyer is. He leaves next week. He is so ready haha. I was with elder edwards all day and he is a really good guy. He came here on the plane with me. We had a good time with the work that we had to do. We actually found a new family and taught a new lesson and that felt good. We slept in hammoks last night. true hondurans

Today we got up and started our drive back to teguc. I am now back in the office. I made the trip safely. We prayed before each departure. I know that that helps protect us. Now I am having a normal boring pday on a saturday. It is a good break at least. I love you all family. Enjoy the last few weeks of summer. Love Elder Comstock

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The Newbies Have Arrived AND I'm Coming Home!

This week was a crazy one. I was very very busy.

On Monday night I had to go to Presidents house at 8 to go over the changes that the mission was going to have. President actually asked us our opinions on a few changes. It was always his decision at the end of the day though. I now understand how we can assist him because we are a lot closer to the missionaries and we have a lot of information. We didnt finish the changes until about 11. We live close to president though so he went and dropped us off.

Tuesday morning we got in the Truck to go to the airport. We had a group of 12 sisters coming in at 930. 10 of them are from the usa. That is a record size of a group of sisters. They took awhile though because the airline from el salvador lost some bags. We helped them with that later though. We drove them back to presidents house and went straight back to the airport. It is kind of far from presidents house because it is part of the other mission.  We picked up the 8 elders that came in from provo. They were also all from the usa. So it was a large group of gringos. We took them home and they had a meeting all afternoon. We called the ZLs and gave the whole mission thier changes at 6. That was nice because the aps used to do it very late at night and there was no time to pack. I wanted to get it done as soon as possible. After that we had a welcome dinner with all of the new missionaries at presidents house. It is clear that these new missionaries are a blessing for our mission. They look a lot better than we were when we came haha. 

Wednesday morning was the big change meeting. We took all of the new missionaries to the stake center to start the meeting. I led the meeting and was able to share my testimony with them about how el libro de mormon helped me learn spanish. My companion shared his testimony too. I then had to translate Hermana Hernadez and Presidents talks for the new missionaries. That was funny. I forgot a word or 2 in english. We got them all thier new companions and sent them off to their new areas. In the afternoon we took the missionaries that will be going home before september to the temple. That includes Elder Tarver, Meyer, Jones, and Stone. Some of my best friend on the mission. So I drove them to the temple and we did a session in the afternoon. That really helped me relax with all of the stress that I had from the craziness of the week. We had a dinner that night with their group as well at presidents house. I took Elder Tarver to the airport the next day. He is now with his family.

Speaking of going home. I should be home around the 23rd of December. That is the release date that President Hernandez gave me when I talked to him about school and everything. I know that mom was dying to hear that while reading this email. So I will be home within the next 5 months. The time is getting shorter... I will take advantage of it I promise. Thanks for everything family. I love you all so much.

Love Elder Comstock

Back To The South

July 20,2013

I spent most of last week in southern Honduras. It was such a good trip. I was able to work with 3 different zones and see how they were doing. The south is supposted to be the part of the mission that baptizes the most. They are doing a good job. It is known for the heat.

The first day was spent in a zone called San Lorenzo. That is the hottest zone in the mission. It was a hot day. We drove down with president to the south and he dropped me off with the zls (Elder Vorwaller and Torres) in SL. Elder Vorwaller is actually from Parker Colorado. He said that he didnt know Grandma and Grandpa though. Maybe they know his parents. We got to ride bikes all day. That was new and different for me. They are like the only zone that has bikes. Lucky them. We saw a circus there and took pictures of some of the animals on the side of the road. We helped the sisters move houses. We taught a good lesson. It was a sucessful day.

The second day I went to la zona Monte Carlo with my old friend Elder Dockendorf. He is the Zone leader in that zone That was a fun day. We went out to the brand new area that he is opening. He is breaking records of mission stats with investigators in church and lessons taught. It is a place that has litteraly never had much religion. It is very remote, but he is seeing sucess there. We enjoyed our divisions.

The third day was in la Zona Iztoca with my roomate from the mtc, Elder Evans. He is the zone leader there. We got hit by a crazy rain storm. It was raining sideways. It is a good thing that I had to go to the bathroom and we went to the house 5 min befor it started raining. We got lucky. We had district meeting that day with brownies that are delicious. 

Yesterday I got back to Teguc and to my pleasant supprise our truck was ready. Our finacial secretery Elder Peterson came to pick us up and took us to the toyota shop to pick up Presidents car that was getting worked on too. I drove Presidents car back to his house. The toyota shop is in the comayaguela mission, so I didnt really know the way back. We drove around for a few minutes and found our way. It was funny.  It was a great week though. And we have 3 baptisms planned for tonight so it should end well. They are 3 girls that we have been teaching. Wish me luck! I love you all so much!

Love Elder Comstock

DRIVING!!!

July 13, 2013

Well it sounds like you all had quite the week. Park city, new cars, living the good life. I have to be honest and say that my week was not anything like that. But the new car thing is getting close. We should be getting our truck back soon. Someone wrecked it a few months back but It is about fixed up. We will see if we are lucky enough to have it on Monday. We shouldve had it a month ago but they are just taking a really long time. I did get to drive Presidents car 2 weeks ago. It was exactly 18 months since I had driven. It went well though.

This week was filled with divisions. Like always I suppose. That is fine though. It is our job. It is funny because some people in our ward dont even think that elder quevedo and I are companions because we are together such a little amount of time. Monday and Friday we were togethrer in the 30. Tuesday wednesday thursday we were alover teguc. But one of us was always in our area. That was necesary because we are preparing a few people for baptism in the next couple of weeks. That is the fun part about being ap. We work out of our area and with the whole mission, but we are also expected to baptize in our area as well. It isnt easy, but the Lord has blessed us so much in our little time in the area to always have new investigators and people in church. I think we will have a good month this month as a companionship. 

The not fun part is all of the problems. We sent 3 missionaries home this week. I dont know all of the details of why, because its none of my buisness, but I am pretty sure that it was all for things that they did before the mission. The guilt just got to them I suppose. That is why repentance is so necesary, that is also why it is such a miracle. That we can be guilt free out here in the mission and in life if we will just be humble enough to repent. So I suppose it was a good thing that they talked to president and are on the path to repentance.

I have a fun week planned ahead of me. We are going back to the SOUTH! I havent been down there since last august. I wont be going out to Monjaras this month, maybe the next one. But I  am still excited to go back down there. It is so much hotter. I will be sweating a lot more than normal. Im sure it will bring back great memories of Guapinol. I love you family. Keep enjoying your summer!

Love Elder Comstock

Busy, Busy, Busy!!!!

                                                         June 22, 2013
The past week flew by for me. Sunday was really cool going back to the 30 for the first time. The people were happy to see me there. I was happy to see them as well. It has been fun being back for the first week. Monday was interesting too because we spent most of the day in the office. That was different for me. We had a meeting with president hernandez in the morning and we started to plan a training meeting for friday. We spent the rest of the day until 3 oclock at the office preparing for the training meeting. After that we went out to our area to work. It was a little different working on a monday, but it was fine. It is no longer pday for me.

On Tuesday our companion Elder Folsom went down to the south to see how some elders are doing down there. I went out to an area called el hatillo that is far into the mountains of Teguc, and elder Quevedo stayed in our area. It is nice having 3 of us to be able to go to so many different areas. El hatillo was so far away and poor. They are starting a new branch up there so It was good to go and get to know the area. It will be a difficult one, but they can get it going. 

On thursday we did divisions again. I went to my area with Elder Lawson and Elder Quevedo went to the Travesia with Elder Reyes. I was just there a week ago so I sent my companion up there. He had been in that ward too so we know everyone in this stake. It was a good day though. We are doing divisions at least 2 times a week right now to work with as many elderes as possible. I think we are doing a good job so far.

Yesterday was the training meeting that we had been preparing for. We invited all of the District Leaders and Zone Leaders to a meeting and told them what they are expected to do. When I was a distrtict leader nobody ever told me what to do, I just did what I thought was right. We decied to tell them right from the start what was expected of them so that they dont have to waste as much time figuring it out as I did. There are a lot of new DLs and ZLs. They will do great though. The meeting went really well. I had a presentation and so did my companions. President and his wife spoke too. I think that they all learned a lot.

I wont write as many personal emails, but will add more detail in this one so that you all know. I now live in a nice house for the first time in my mission. We live there with the 4 office elders, so we are 7 in total right now. We have 3 rooms upstairs and 2 bathrooms with sinks and showers. On the main level there is a kitchen that is ok and a bathroom that doesnt have a shower. And we have a basement with a washing machine and a lot of extra matresses for when other missionaries need a place to sleep if they miss a bus or something. That is also our study area and we have a big whiteboard for the whole mission. I have upgraded in living and I am happy about that. I  love you all so much family. Thank you so much for all of your love and support. 

Love Elder Comstock

Note From Madelynn

Hi there big brother! I'm emailing you on Thursday instead of Friday so I don't forget. That is great that you are the new AP! That day Whitney came into the family room where mom and I were. She says to us, "Did you guys get Jordan's email"? And I'm sitting on the couch thinking to myself, wait is today Monday? Now on the other side of the couch there's mom. There's me all confused, then there is mom, Oh my gosh oh my gosh! So she hurrays and pulls up her email on her I pad. I pull it up on my I pod. I take a quick glance and saw the date July 2nd. Then all of the sudden mom starts balling crying. Now I thought she was crying because you were coming home on July 2nd. But that was not the case. So i ask her why she was crying. She says,"Your brother is the new AP! That is a really big deal!" And to be honest I didn't know what AP meant. So i ask her. She tells me what it means and my mind literally froze! I was so proud of you! Now I didn't show it but I felt it! I was thinking to myself at that moment. I have the most amazing big brother in the world. But you aren't just a brother to me. You are a best friend, my hero, and the best missionary out there! That is why the subject of this email is examples! Jordan I love you very much!

   Well, me and mom have been crafting a lot of things! We spray painted the island chairs in the kitchen. We spray painted Whitney's bed board. And we painted the chest in the basement. We also got glasses and put modge podge on them and then put glitter on them. They are cute! Well that is pretty much it! Love you much! 

          -Madelynn

Note From Grandpa

Jordan,
What an honor and awesome responsibility you have with your new
assignment as AP.  I understand that you were surprised with Pres.
Hernandez decision, but I'm not.  I know you have been a hard worker
and strong example to the other missionaries there, and your mission
president clearly expects you to continue to be that kind of
missionary.  The best predictor of future performance is past
behavior.  I believe you have been very valiant in your calling.
Pres. Hernandez knows this, and he knows that you will be the kind of
AP he can depend on.
Continue the good work in training the missionaries.  I am so proud of
you.  You have certainly magnified your priesthood, and developed
leadership qualities.

Love,
Grandpa J.

Today is Saturday. I Have a New Calling

***Note from Mom:  So there I was sitting on the couch playing on my ipad and Whitney walks in and says did you get Jordan's email?  What?!?!?!?  I SAY.  Today is Saturday.  Why would there be an email from Jordan?  Whitney says "I don't know but I just saw that there was."  So immediately I check my email and yes this email was in my inbox!!!!  I am so proud of my son.  A simple boy from little ole Cedar City, Utah is doing such great things in a far away land!!!                                     

Today is Saturday, and it is my new pday. I will quicky explain to you why.

On thursday night we were anxioiusly awaiting change calls. We expected for the APs to call us and tell us that one of us would be leaving and the other staying. But we didnt know who would stay and who would go. We got a call at about 830,  but it wasnt from the APs, it was from President Hernandez. I answered the phone call and asumed that he would want to talk to Elder Reyes to call him as the next AP. Elder Reyes is the best missionary I know and he has been a ZL for about 5 changes so I thought it was time for him. To my suprise President began talking to me and asking me some simple questions about me and my mission. He then proceeded to tell me that he had considered me to be his next assistant and he asked me if I was willing to accept that resposibility. I was awestruck. I never saw it coming. I told him yes. He then told me thank you and that I would find out who my new companion is the next day.  So long story short, I am now AP.

I will now tell you why it was so suprising to me. First of all, I had only  been a zl for 2 changes and that isnt that long of a time. and second, The AP area has always been la 30 de julio. My 2nd area. I was there for 6 months and I just started month 7. I could spend half of my mission in that ward. I am happy about that though. I love them so much. I will get to help some of  my converts that are not doing so well and find some new ones. I am happy, but suprised.

On wednesday we went to changes and I met my new companion Elder Quevedo. We are both new APs. We are in a Trio with Elder Folsom, the current AP, until july 2nd when he goes home. He is showing us what we need to do. We are 3 for the rest of the month, but that is fine because Elder Folsom is helping us a lot. We have a lot to get done. Elder Quevedo is from Canada. His parents are from Peru though. His first language is French, then spanish, then english. He is from quebec. He is an incridible missionary.  Elder Folsom is about to finish and he is going home 3 weeks early because he plays football for Montana State. He needs to get ready for this fall.  

After changes on wednesday we took the 10 Elders that were going home this change to the Temple. I finally got to do a session in the temple. I have to tell you that that was an amazing experience. I loved it so much. It was different in spanish but I understood it all and technicaly they say all of the same things so I was fine. It was a good chance to pray for help and strength to fufill all of the responsiblities that I now have. After the temple we had dinner at presidents house with the elders that were going home. Elder Garcias family was there so mom can ask her how that went. It was cool though. That night Elder Gonzalez from our stake talked to president rau on the phone and was released as a missionary. He is visiting his mom in mexico for a month and after that will be going back to suu in the fall. You can say hi to him in a month or so. I wish I couldve talked to president rau though. 

Thursday was crazy as well. We took those 10 Elders to the airport. I had not been to the airport since last march. It was wierd being there. I had to say goodbye to Elder Adams there. That was sad. The other elders were my friends too. I will miss them. I suppose that I will be going to the airport a lot over the next few months though so I will be used to it before i go home!

Friday we had a meeting with president hernandez in the morning for a coulple of hours. He told us exactly what he expects of us as his assistants. He wants us to work. He doesnt want us to be in the office that much. He wants us to go and work in our area and go on splits with the rest of the mission. He wants us to verify with everyone to see how they are. He wants us to train the zls and the dls so that they can train the rest of the mission. We have a lot of work to do. He also gave me a blessing and that was very special. I am ready to do this. I know that it will be difficult but I know that the Lord will help me do this. I will contiune to appriciate all of your prayers. Dont just pray for me though. Pray for this entire mission. We are getting better every month and I dont want that to stop. I love you family. Thank you for all of your love and support. Write back if you read this right now!

Love, Elder Comstock

No More Soccer. :(

                                                                        June 10, 2013
This was a crazy week. Wednesday we had a meeting with President Hernandez and all of the ZLs. He taught us some stuff that Elder Duncan from the 70 told him. He was passing the info to us to pass to the Elders and Sisters. When we got there we saw an Elder with crutches but we couldnt tell who it was. When we got closer we saw that it was Elder Elggren. A ZL from another zone, an elder with 15 months in the mission, and with a broken foot. He had a cast on it. He had broken it on Monday playing soccer. He took his flight home on Friday and probably has already had the surgery that he needs. He was pretty bummed out that he had to go home. It is even tougher because he will have to serve the last 9 months of his mission after he heals. I didnt know him too well, but I feel bad for him. With that accident and other minor injuries over the past 2 years that president hernandez has been here he has decided that we are no longer allowed to play soccer, or any contact sport. I am happy that I got to play for 17 months at least. I feel way bad for those that are starting out. We understand why the rule is there though.

The good news is that we had a baptism on saturday! It was possibly Elder Reyes and mine last baptism together because changes are on wednesday. I was very happy. Her name is Ilsy. We didnt know at the first of the week if she would be able to on saturday or not because she was gone from monday to friday. We even taught her last pday in the morning before she left. We were happy to find out on saturday that she had done all of the reading that we assingned her, and was living the commandments, and wanted to be baptized still. She had some big challenges last week but she made it through them I am happy for her. After the baptism we made the peanut butter cookies that mom sent me at valentines day to celebrate. I saved them for a special occasion. It was a fun night.

The changes will happen this week. Our zone will be downsizing a bit and I may have a new area. We will just have to see what President says. My companion has an interview with him in an hour so we will see if he can get some info out of him today so that we dont have to wait until tomorrow. It is so suspensful. We want to stay together but we realize that it is not likely.  I love you all so much. Keep enjoying your summer!

Love Elder Comstock

And This Too Shall Pass

                                                      June 2, 2013

This was not an easy week. I will be honest about that. To be honest, I am not in an easy area, but We had a really good pday today though. 

We told everyone to go to the church at 10 and to bring 2 fruits. I will tell you what those were for later. We started off by explaing that we were going to do 3 activites to help us put on the "armor of God" The first activity was some defense. We all did part of the p90x dvd Kenpo x. It was very very funny to watch the whole zone doing that disc. I took some videos of it. the second activity was a speed challenge. We had a competition to see who could eat 6 crackers fastest. Supposedly it was impossible to do it in less than a min. But I got 1 min 3 seconds. Another elder got it in 55. That was a record. The third competition involved the fruits. We all played live fruit ninja. We took a machete, threw the fruits in the air and cut them. It was very very funny. I loved it. So did the zone. The whole activity was a suprise for them. We can get together as a zone for pday once a month, and no more. President doesnt want the elders spending too much time with the sisters. Understandable. We had to do something different and cool thought to keep the zone happy.I know they enjoyed themselves.

My companion may be getting the call as ap this week. We will see. there will be a special meeting for zls on wednesday this week to anounce who the next 2 aps are because the current ones are going home. Elder Reyes is incredible though so I think he has a good shot at it. 

It has been raining all week, and it is raining right now. I love the rain and all, but this is not my ideal weather for the mission. It is raining more in the day time than it did last summer. Last summer inthe south it rained more, but mostly just at night. I liked that better. I am in a completly different part of the country right now though. I am fine though. We have a friend who is a taxi driver that is coming to get us right now. My companion left some stuff at the church( his money) so we have to go back and look for it. I will get on later and send a picture or 2 if we have time, but I cant promise you anything. I love you all so much. Happy Birthday DAD and WHITNEY!

Love Elder Comstock

Enjoy Your Summer. I Will Work Straight Through

esperanza. It was my 2nd stake conference in this stake (the last one was in november). It went really well. Elder Cesar Morales (area 70) was there and he gave a really good talk. He started off talking directly to the missionaries. He told us that we need to always be testifing or teaching, or we arent even really missionaries. I liked that. It keeps us on our toes. He said that it can be hard for our families having a missionary missing from the house, I dont know how true that is, but he also said that you should be recieving a bunch of blessings as well, I hope that is true! The temple president came and gave a 3 minute talk urging all of the young single adults to get married, and it was funny the way he talked about it. It made me laugh at least. I really love this stake. I dont really ever want to leave it.

On tuesday this week we had a zone confernce which included 5 zones. We all met up and president and sister hernandez and the aps talked to us. It was a good day. I love hearing from president hernandez. he is a very busy man. I have been waiting for my interview with him for about 2 months now. I dont have anything urgent to talk to him about, but I would like to talk to him, he has just been very very busy. He is a very good man and example for me.

It went pretty good in the area this week too. We are getting things going more and more. We have very slim chances of baptizing this month though. That is tough, it has been about 9 months since I havent baptized in a month. I am not too happy about that. But we have a lot of positive people for june, so we should get better. Our zone did ok this month. Not as good as last month though. The mission is fighting to break 200 again. We need about 6 miracles this week to break 200 for the 3rd month in a row, something that has never happened here before, We are doing a good job. 

Well it is now your summer break. Enjoy it. I will not have any breaks this summer, but thats ok because that is what I signed up for. I will work hard though I promise. I love you all so much. Congrats on finishing another year of school! Congrats whit on graduating, and courtney  too for surviving middle school, and madee for finishing elementry school. You are all amazing!

Love Elder Comstock

Traveling

Hey family, long time no see. Just kidding, we saw eachother a week ago, and that feels like yesterday. The past week was a quick one due to the dutys of a ZL. I just had to travel a lot.

On tuesday I stayed in my area and Elder Reyes left. Elder Tarver came to the Travesia with me and that was fun. He is in my zone again. We never did divisions back in la esperanza, so we had a good time. It was a tough day though. We are starting to find out a litte too much about our investigators. They have some serious, like things that would be illegal in the states serios, problems. I really am not sure what to do with many of them.

On thursday I went out of the area to a place called el sitio. It was a good little day, but I didnt realize when I left that I would have to go somewhere else on friday as well. On friday elder adams needed an interview for a baptism and told me on thursday night, so  I had to go up to Valle de Angeles with him. I bought shirt up there, the one I told dad about. Thanks! I also bought Elder Reyes a birthday present because it was his birthday on saturday. He is 21 now. I got him a train that says TRAVY on it so he will remeber our zone the Travesia. We also went to Chilis. yum..

Well, not too much has changed since last sunday, but in the next couple of weeks a lot could change so I will be letting you know. We have a zone conference with all of the city tomorrow so that should be fun. President always prepares somehting great for that. Good luck with the graduations this week! I love you all!

Love Elder Comstock

Mother's Day is Coming!!!!

We had our monthly meeting with president as Zone Leaders on friday this week. He addressed the skype issue. We do not have permission to use skype. I am sorry. It is not authorized in the mission. It wasnt presidents choice, but someone above him prohibited it. He said it was just for christmas. I will be calling you on sunday afternoon just like last mothers day. I am sorry to disapoint, but you know its not my fault and that the phone call will be great as well. I am excited about it. It snuck up pretty fast to be honest with you. But that is fine. I am sending a lot of pictures right now so I hope that makes up for not being able to skype!

We had changes on wednesday. I am still with elder Reyes which is great. We had about 5 changes in our zone, and I was sad to see them go. But they have great replacements so I think we will be fine. There are 2 new elders fresh out of provo. They are cool. One says that he went to suu for a semester. They are both 18 years old. We had an interesting change with the sisters as well. Since there are so many sisters now president had to make some sister leaders to go on divisions with them and help teach them. there are 3 companionships of sister leaders and one of them is in our zone. They are all stars. I am happy to have them on the team. Changes went really well for our zone.

On thursday we met as a zone and Elder Reyes and I taught them that there are 3 things we do in la zona Travesia. 1. we baptize. (which is something that this zone never did before) 2. We read the book of mormon as a zone. We asign 30 pages to every missionary every week. Betweem the 22 of us we are reading the entire book every week. It is helping us a lot to stay focused and have the spirit. It is helping the investigators too. 3. we are happy. Last change was one of my favorites and I know that this one will be great too. This is one of my favorite zones without a doubt. We have tons of fun and sucess. We get along. We are a family. I am very happy here. 

I will call you around 3 ocklock Honduras time. I think it is the same time as utah. I hope so at least. Make sure to have some questions ready and such. I will be happy to answer them. I love you all so much.

Love Elder Comstock

 

 

Note from Mom:

Jordan surprised me.  He emailed Mark on Wednesday of this week and told him that the President changed his mind and said the missionaries could SKPYE after all. :)

Sunday morning around 8 he called Mark.  I heard Mark say let me get your mother for you. I was thinking what?!?!?  Everyone that calls me Mom and I am able to talk to is in bed right now.  Mark handed me the phone and said "Your son would like to talk to you!"  BEST present!!  He said "Hi mom, happy Mother's Day.  I just wanted to be the first one to wish you a happy Mother's Day.  And tell you I will not be able to call until around 6.  I knew you would worry if you didn't hear from me at 3."  Then at 6:10 the phone rang.  Jordan said he was trying to surprise with the SKPYE but the computer he was going to use had not arrived yet so we could talk on the phone until it came.  When the computer arrived for him to use Mark hooked up our ipad to the TV.  It was just like Jordan was in the living room with us!  It was SOOOO GREAT.  Then when we hung up Jordan said to have dad give me his present.  He wrote me the most wonderful letter.  Oh, I am such a lucky mom.  :)

 

The Anti Nephi Lehiis

                                                                April 29, 2013
This change is coming to a close. It was without a doubt the fastest and one of the best of my mission. In the month of march our zone had a measly 6 baptisms. But that was normal for the travesia zone. This month we had 22. We did so much better. I think that it was the first time that this zone has ever had more than 20 baptsims. And of the 8 zones in the capital city, we had the most. I am so proud of the elders and sisters here. the last 6 weeks here has been so great with them. I will be sad to see some of them leave this wednesday. One is going home for good. Elder Lindblom. We have been in the same zone 3 times and he is flyin home on wednesday. I will miss him.

Today was also one of the best pdays that ive had out here. I will tell you why. We went on the waterfall hike up in valle de angeles. There are many people in our zone that hadnt done that so we wanted to take them up there since they did so well this month. We went on the hike, took some pictures, enjoyed ourselves. It was a good relaxing day. At the water fall we did something different though. I took my machete and a shovel and a capsule thing. We talked about the anti nefi lehis and what they did. We decided to write some things down that we could get better at and bury them. We all signed the machete and burried it as well. It was an unforgetable experience. I hope that it was as meaningful for them as it was for me. I will print that picture out next week and always have it as a reminder of what I burried. To keep it buried.

Elder Reyes and I also had a baptism on saturday. Her name is Arlin. She is a cleaning lady for the 1st councilor in the stake presidency. She started coming to church with them and liked it so we taught her. At first she was hesitant about baptism, but after a week she was really excited about it. We didnt know why she had that attitute change until the baptism. after she was baptized she stood up and shared that she didnt want to get baptized at first, but that she had an answer to her first prayer. That she felt it bursting out of her chest and she knew it was true. She shared that testimony through tears. Many others cried with her. It was powerful. I am proud of her. 

I love you family. 

Love Elder Comstock

Enjoyable Week?

                                                               April 25, 2013Well it was another good week for me here in the Travesia. I will mention 2 things that happened that I enjoyed. Well I dont know if you could say that I enjoyed it, but it was my week.

Tuesday of last week was a long day. We woke up and went to Presidents house at 6 am. We had to do interviews with our whole zone. President wanted to do them at the missionaries houses this time around so we had to show him all of the houses. We were with him all day long. Our zone has 11 areas and we only made it to 7 of them. We ended at 8 pm. You can tell it was a long day just by that fact. It was a good day too though. We actually didnt get to be interviewed but we will have that another day. It was fun getting to drive around with President and Hermana Hernandez all day. 

Thursday. Wasnt quite as fun. We got a call from one of our elders that was sick and wanted to go to the hospital at 9 oclock. and he lives an hour away from the hospital. So we went at 10 to the hospital. That was fun because we were there until 2 in the morning. We had to stay with him because he was sick and we are his zone leaders. He turned out to be fine. He just had a lot of diaharea.

It was a super fast week. I have to do some stuff for the zone so I dont have time to write you all individually. Thanks for everything you do though. I love you lots. 

Love Elder Comstock

 Chili's (Jordan's favorite place in the city)

 O.k. Let's just try to get along!  :)

B.E.S.T. Week

                                              April 8, 2013

Yesterday we had stake conference in la estaca esperanza. It was my 2nd stake conference in this stake (the last one was in november). It went really well. Elder Cesar Morales (area 70) was there and he gave a really good talk. He started off talking directly to the missionaries. He told us that we need to always be testifing or teaching, or we arent even really missionaries. I liked that. It keeps us on our toes. He said that it can be hard for our families having a missionary missing from the house, I dont know how true that is, but he also said that you should be recieving a bunch of blessings as well, I hope that is true! The temple president came and gave a 3 minute talk urging all of the young single adults to get married, and it was funny the way he talked about it. It made me laugh at least. I really love this stake. I dont really ever want to leave it. 

On tuesday this week we had a zone confernce which included 5 zones. We all met up and president and sister hernandez and the aps talked to us. It was a good day. I love hearing from president hernandez. he is a very busy man. I have been waiting for my interview with him for about 2 months now. I dont have anything urgent to talk to him about, but I would like to talk to him, he has just been very very busy. He is a very good man and example for me.

It went pretty good in the area this week too. We are getting things going more and more. We have very slim chances of baptizing this month though. That is tough, it has been about 9 months since I havent baptized in a month. I am not too happy about that. But we have a lot of positive people for june, so we should get better. Our zone did ok this month. Not as good as last month though. The mission is fighting to break 200 again. We need about 6 miracles this week to break 200 for the 3rd month in a row, something that has never happened here before, We are doing a good job. 

Well it is now your summer break. Enjoy it. I will not have any breaks this summer, but thats ok because that is what I signed up for. I will work hard though I promise. I love you all so much. Congrats on finishing another year of school! Congrats whit on graduating, and courtney  too for surviving middle school, and madee for finishing elementry school. You are all amazing!

Love Elder Comstock

Stake Conference

                                                                                                   March 25, 2013

 

 

Yesterday we had stake conference in la estaca esperanza. It was my 2nd stake conference in this stake (the last one was in november). It went really well. Elder Cesar Morales (area 70) was there and he gave a really good talk. He started off talking directly to the missionaries. He told us that we need to always be testifing or teaching, or we arent even really missionaries. I liked that. It keeps us on our toes. He said that it can be hard for our families having a missionary missing from the house, I dont know how true that is, but he also said that you should be recieving a bunch of blessings as well, I hope that is true! The temple president came and gave a 3 minute talk urging all of the young single adults to get married, and it was funny the way he talked about it. It made me laugh at least. I really love this stake. I dont really ever want to leave it.

On tuesday this week we had a zone confernce which included 5 zones. We all met up and president and sister hernandez and the aps talked to us. It was a good day. I love hearing from president hernandez. he is a very busy man. I have been waiting for my interview with him for about 2 months now. I dont have anything urgent to talk to him about, but I would like to talk to him, he has just been very very busy. He is a very good man and example for me.

It went pretty good in the area this week too. We are getting things going more and more. We have very slim chances of baptizing this month though. That is tough, it has been about 9 months since I havent baptized in a month. I am not too happy about that. But we have a lot of positive people for june, so we should get better. Our zone did ok this month. Not as good as last month though. The mission is fighting to break 200 again. We need about 6 miracles this week to break 200 for the 3rd month in a row, something that has never happened here before, We are doing a good job. 

Well it is now your summer break. Enjoy it. I will not have any breaks this summer, but thats ok because that is what I signed up for. I will work hard though I promise. I love you all so much. Congrats on finishing another year of school! Congrats whit on graduating, and courtney  too for surviving middle school, and madee for finishing elementry school. You are all amazing!

Love Elder Comstock

 Jordan learning to play another instrument?!?!?!