Dear Mom and everybody,
Well this is the first email from Honduras!!! It's been a crazy first week here in this country. So much to tell so I'll try to start at the beginning. First, Troy and Logan were right, I did feel my suit suddenly start sticking to me when I first got off the plane. It was 8:30 at night and it was still amazingly hot. We started going through customs and got a chance to practice my Spanish on complete strangers. It was fun. I didn't see the mission President at customs and got worried that he had forgotten or something like you only see in the movies. Luckly he was just around the corner after we got through customs. He took us to the mission secretary's (that's a missionary position that I never heard about) and he got us Wendy's which is not the same as in the states, too bad. Everybody drives so fast here. Even in the city streets my President Veirs was hauling at 75 mph. I thought I was going to die, but I didn't thankfully. :)
On Tuesday we got to go to President's house for breakfast and interviews. Elder Ellett told them that I play the piano so I got to play my two Yanni songs Marching Seasons and Reflections of Passion for them. They really liked it. They also say that I can listen to Yanni and Tab Choir and the Bagpipes, so I get to keep my sanity that way.
We went out contacting for about an hour and a half later that day with just random missionaries that were not going to be our real companions. While my temporary companion and I were contacting, I got to meet my first drunk here in Honduras and he spoke english. He kept asking us why we were in Honduras, so we told him. Then he started swearing and saying that Abraham came before Jesus...funny, I think we believe that one too:)
Oh and Uncle Logan...you made the cold showers here sound like a bad thing. It was the best thing ever to finally be able to hop into a real cold shower and not feel hot and sticky for a those few minutes. And Dad, I kept saying I couldn't wait to take a shower and dry off with a towel but never be dry no matter how much I used the towell, and you kept saying it wouldn't be that way lol, well it was just like I pictured it. The get I use takes forever to dry. It's quite an adventure.
My companion here in Honduras is really cool. He's actually just from West Jordan and he goes home in five weeks. He had to have surgery on his foot my third day here to remove ten planters warts so he couldn't walk or two days so we were just stuck in the house for two days.
Ok now for the fun experiences.
President said that he and his wife called you and told you that my plane landed safely which it did. He also told me that he told you that I got robbed on Thursday. That is true. All the missionariers were surprised to hear that I had already gotten robbed on my second day. They took my watch and 5 limpidas or about 25 cents. I was only a little shaken up after that:)
Later that day we were out contacting and my companion told me to go contact this one lady that was just sitting there holding her kid. I went up, said hello, she turned around and was just sitting there breastfeeding that little kid. Needless to say it was a short contact and then we got out of there.
On Sunday we were around contacting a little because one of our appointments fell through and out of the corner of my eye I see a dog, I like dogs but I just kept walking. The dog started coming up behind me, I didn't think anything of it because we have had a few nice dogs that will just follow us to the church. Then the dog bit my on the back of my lower thigh and then ran off! but I still like dogs...I still like dogs. It poked two nice holes in my black pants but didn't even leave a mark on my garments or my leg. It was pretty cool. Or as cool as getting bit by a dog.
Well those are all the real fun stories of the first week. Now I will answer your questions. So far what do I think of Honduras? Well they have little mountains that are covered with lush green growth. That part is pretty. After that...it gets questionable. The people quite often take their garbage out on the street and just burn it. Right on the side of the street. Because they are always burning their garbage it smells horrible. It always smells like smoke mixed with a few other things. The people are amazingly cocky, they think that everything American was actually made in Honduras then stolen by America. They complain that America never sends any help, but when America does send money, the people here go and blow it on cable tv and new cell phones. They live in shammbles but still have cable tv and cell phones. In a lot of the really poor areas which by the way are really really really really poor, they have their ideas for architcture all wrong. The build the walls of the house out of blankets and use the cinderblocks for their beds. It seems kind of backwards.
Well I'm out of time,
know that I do love it here
Love,
Elder Travis Neiswender
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