Weeks 12-14 Transfer 2 Weeks 1-3

1/11 (Week 12)

Hello Family, 

So there are these things called changes and now I am in a new area in the mission with a new companion as well. It feels like that I am starting over my mission because I have no idea about the lay out of my new area which is called Buenos Aires and I am trying to establish a relationship with my new companion Elder Valenciano who has been in this area for about 4 and a half months and has about 7 months done in the mission. Everything is going fine for me here now. 

I found out that I had changes last Monday night when the zone leaders called and said to my companion Elder Coj that I was going to zone Mirimar to an area called Buenos Aires. Let me just say that this area is different in ways because it is hilly and my last area in La Paz was flat. I am starting to get used to the area now but it was difficult at first. Where we are living now it is smaller than were I was in La Paz as well. In La Paz I was living in a house but now I am living in a small apartment which has barely enough room for 2 missionaries to live out off. The picture that I have is the view from our balcony that we have. 

This past week it was a bit tough for me because I am trying to be more patient with my companion and with myself as well. Elder Valenciano is good and all. Me and him are on a different page on the style and way that we both want to work and we really do not see eye to eye on some things, but I am trying to work it out with him as well. 

Dad yeah it was hard to find shoes that fit my feet because they are so big and they use the EU scale as well which is a bit different. The shoes cost around 600 limpera. I bought them in a city called Progreso. 

Hope that you all are having a good time and such talk to you guys next week.

Elder Trepanier

Photo from his apartment

1/18 (Week 13)

Hello, 

So if you guys do not already know I have changed areas in my mission. Yes after only having one change in my first area. The name of the area that I am in is called Buenos Aires which is close to the city of La Cieba. It is taking some time for me to adjust to this area right now because I am still new to this whole mission thing. 

I continue to work and think of ways that I can better myself as a missionary to help those that need my help whether they be investigators, members, less actives in the church, or people on the street that I do not know. 

Let me say that my Spanish is coming little by little for me. I am understanding the majority of what people are saying to me but I cannot say that I can understand 100 percent of what is being said I mainly rely on context to know what people are saying to me. 

Hope that you are all doing fine back home. 

Elder Trepanier

1/25 (Week 14)

Mom, 

Let me say that time has passed by fast for me on the mission and it has only been just about 3 months and I have learned a lot, and sometimes I do not even realize how much time has gone by until I think about it. 

As for the ward the area is decent size that it covers. There are about 200 members in the ward area but the attendance of church fluctuates a lot it is really not that stable because of the amount of less active families in the area. The Bishop in our area wants the attendance of sacrament meeting to be 120 people but it has wavered around 80 to 100 people since I have been in the area. For lunch we pay a sister in the ward to cook for us during the week and we have dinner appointments every day with members of the ward and the majority of them love having us over to eat. 

Right now in the area it is a bit hard to find people to teach because when we find someone they either do not want to hear the gospel or they are hard to find when we put a cita with them. We have 2 investigators with a baptismal date for this Saturday one is about 50 and the other is about 35. They are good people I have not gotten to know them very much because I have been here for only about 3 weeks. They are on the verge of getting baptized and such. 

Hope that everything is going fine back home. 

Elder Trepanier

Hello Family, 

The area is going fine. There is a lot more rain than there was in La Paz because of how close that we are to the coast. I am handling the rain decently. What goes on is when we leave for the day as we look at the sky and if there are a lot of grey clouds we go and put our rain jackets in our bags so that if it does rain we are prepared for it. The ward is good I am starting to get to know members in the ward such as the ones that we have dinner appointments with but it is a bit tough because of my Spanish that I have and also because of the time that I have been here in the area. My Spanish is getting better and better as I practice and study. 

We had a missionary conference this week were the general authorities talked to all the missionaries in the world on what we need to be focusing on as missionaries to help our investigators. We also had interviews with President Klien also this week and things are going fine. Probably my companion will be leaving the area at the end of this change because this is his 4th change in the area. I am working hard and trying to be better more and more each day. 

Elder Trepanier

Our Christmas package arrived! (he forgot to tell us)

He was without his rain coat and a member offered him a garbage bag to use

Love this smile!!
(And how I figured out that he received the package)

Weeks 10-11 Transfer 1 Weeks 4-5

Week 10

Hey Family, 

Firsts things first the time that you gave me to skype on Christmas Eve at 2 pm my time works perfectly for me I just need to find a place that I can use that has a web camera so that I can talk with you via skype it will probably be from an Internet cafe. I am just going to give you the number of the mission phone that we have so that if you guys are running late on your end you can call and talk to me and I know your phone number so that if I am running late on my end I can call you guys. Now this does not mean that you can call me during the week to talk to me it is only for talking before the skype call to make sure that we are all ready to go because I have 40 minutes to talk to all of you. The phone number is **********(redacted by Stacey) I can not wait to talk to you guys and see how you are doing. 

Let me tell you guys being in a trio of missionaries is different because of how things work in our lessons. All that it basically is that one of us starts the lesson off and then we rotate between the three of us who is going to talk I am still getting used to it because I am only used to it just me and my trainer Elder Coj in lessons and we pass the topics of the lessons off one to another but things are going fine with them. Elder Garnica my other companion does not speak English at all and what English that he does know are bad words that are not really appropriate to say as a missionary and a representative of Jesus Christ. 

Things have been going great for me in the mission. We are nearing the end of my first change (which is normally 6 weeks but this change is a 7 week one) here as a missionary and it weird to talk to the other missionaries in my district about what can happen to everyone in the district and in the zone. I am adjusting better to the language now that I have one month in the field. Let me tell you guys that time really does fly by on the mission. They say that the first 3 months of you mission are slow but let me tell you guys that i feel like this has been one of the fastest months in my life because we are working everyday until about 9 o'clock at night. 

Thank you guys for the pictures that you have sent me and the words of encouragement that you have sent. I can not wait to see you guys on Christmas Eve and see how you have all changed. I got to say Andrew you look pretty good in a suit and with your new hair cut as well. Let me say that what Brother Toledo said was true the hair cuts that you get on a mission are so so I got my first hair cut in the field today and I fell that it looks good but it is not how I usually like it. 

Hope that you guys are doing well. See you on Thursday. 

Elder Trepanier 

Week 11

Mom,

It was so good to talk to you guys as well. I can not send any photos this week because I forgot to bring my camera with me to send a few pictures but I will send more next week. Christmas went well for me one tradition that they have for Christmas is when on Christmas Eve it changes to Christmas Day they set off fireworks it is kind of like New Years Eve in the states. You will do fine in your new calling that you have and I am sure that the lord will guide you in what you need to do. Thanks for everything and hope that everything is going fine back home. 

Elder Trepanier

Hey family, 

It is great to hear how things are going for you and what happened this week. Let me say that things went fine for me this new year, and with every new year everyone has new years resolutions or goals that they want to accomplish. First things first this week I got the letters that Rachel sent from the church this past tuesday and just so that you can know it took about 4 weeks for it to get to me from what I could see from the packaging. It seems that you all had a good time this past week. 

Dad we had a zone conference in december and it was pretty cool. We had 2 zones there and it was an experience for me to have. The mission president speaks in spanish when we are at a meeting as a zone or for me when I went for a 4 week meeting with my trainer, and if we are in an interview he speaks english with the north americans or when he calls to speak with a north american. 

It seems that everyone is doing fine and had fun while Andre and Zack and aunt lonie were with the family. For me my new year went by pretty tranquile because President Klien said that he wanted all of the missionaries to be in there houses at 8 oclock and I decided to follow the missionary schedule and go to sleep at 10:30 and I was woken up by the amount of fireworks and firecrackers were set off at midnight and I raised my head from my pillow and thought to myself oh its midnight.

I am having a good time here and am wanting to continue to work and be the best missionary that I can be. I can not believe that I have just about finished 3 month in the mission and have finished my first change here in Honduras. It seems like the time has just flown by for me. Like people say time flies when you are having fun, and I am trying to have the most fun that I can. Also every day seems to be going my so fast because of the amount of work that I am doing. 

Here are some pictures of the christmas gifts that I got myself and what the majority of the houses look like here. 

Elder Trepanier