Tromping Through The Jungle

So we had another good week!  Imma try to tell everything that happened.  first of all, our branch is going to the open house of the Honduras Temple on Monday, Feb 25th.  It is gonna be sweet.  And we're hoping that tons of investigators go too.  That would totally make them baptizable.  This week, we had 11 investigators in church!  looks like all that finding paid off.  So now we just gotta give them all baptismal dates, and we'll be set until May!  haha.  The funniest thing happened last week.  We were walking down Main Street, and there was just a baby crawling down the sidewalk.  We looked around and we were like  "... and this baby?"  haha so we grabbed it and went to the nearest little cafe.  The mom was there, so it was all good.  haha but we were kind of laughing about it.  Some people, right? 

So good news!"  I got the package from Sylvia!  It was awesome!  I liked the truffles especially.  It was awesome!  Also, I got a package from the Hardings in Oregon!  It had a bunch of throw back American stuff.  So this is a shout out to them to thank them.  Pringles, Nutella, Capn Crunch, american oreos?  You can't get much better than that!  Pure american sugar!  So thanks to them for that!  Also, shout out to Emma and Quincy.. I mean Sister, Cole.  For their letters.  Can you tell Emma that yes, I got like 3 from her, all within a week of each other haha.  So thanks. 

oh BIG NEWS!!!  my credit card stopped working, so can you guys check and make sure that UCCU knows that it didn't get stolen?  Cause it seems like it's blocked. 

Those pics of the shower are from before and after I cleaned it.  It's still all dirty and stained, but it is WAY better than before.  There are still slugs.

And there is a rumor I heard that the Pope renounced his position as Pope.  Is that true?  Cause that would be kinda crazy. 

You know what is weird here?  they started making it necessary to study on Saturdays in school for the kids.  So that is kinda crazy.  That would never happen in the US I think. Anyways, once again I'm out of time, but one more thing!

This week I lost my voice like 3 days ago.  it was nuts, and pretty hard to teach.  But like you guys know I never leave a bullet in the chamber, so I just manned up and did it anyways.  It was neat.  Elder Sensenbaugh is cool, La Esperanza is awesome, and Honduras is a chosen country.  I love the mission! 

Love Elder Danny "MANHOOD" Harding

Bienvenidos a La Esperanza

The Esperanza Elders eating our last hostess cupcakes ever... :(

So I finally got changed.  I'm now in the Esperanza!  Or the hope as we gringos call it.  It is freaking freezing here!  you don't even know.  I did not think it would ever be this cold in Honduras.  It's sort of ridiculous.  So now I feel dumb for sending that jacket home haha.  In the city I was like wow I never use this, theres no way I'll ever use this on my mission.  But here it is way cold!  But it's ok, cause we have hot water in the shower :)  I mean, it's not like you guys who if you're cold you just turn up the heat and the entire house heats itself up, but it's still something right?  aka be grateful!!!  Haha but it was awesome here.  There's way more nature than the city, and it is a nice looking place.  The esperanza is sort of near the border with El Salvador.  It's in the department called Intibucá if you want to look me up. 

My new companion is Elder Sensenbaugh.  If you didn't guess, he's white as well.  He's from San Diego, in miramesa.  He is way cool, and we are gonna get along great.  He is a cool dude.  We've been enjoying the cold together, and getting new investigatores and such.  the only bad things about the changes is that I had to say goodbye to the canales family, the investigators that we had.  They were so cool.  But we'll get to visit them in like 10 months.  Also, in 12 months I'll come back for their sealing.  haha that's gonna be cool.  ALSO, now that I'm like 4 hours away from the city, I'm not gonna be nearby when the temple gets dedicated here, aka its probable that I won't get to go to the cultural night.  :(  So will you guys please pray that there will be some way that I can go to the cultural night?  it's a once in a lifetime opportunity. 

I read a sweet talk in the january liahona that would be cool for you guys to use for family home evening tonight!  it's by Neil L Andersen,and it's called reverence for god is the beginning of wisdom.  cool.  Read it.  Love it.

So here in the esperanza we have a little branch that is growing, so we help out a lot.  we taught priesthood class, and we taught the young mens and young womens.  After church, we also got to help with counting the tithing, and today we're gonna go get the reimbursement for some ward activities that they did.  Haha we're basically the bosses here. 

mom.... can you send me pictures of the whole family please if you haven´t already? :)  Muchas Gracias.

I'm jealous that you guys are on a cruise, but it's ok, cause when I get married, I'm gonna go to a SUPER sweet place on my honeymoon, like france or something, and I'm not gonna invite ANY OF YOU!!  (except for my wife).  Speaking of marriage, I was thinking about how sweet it would be to get married in the Honduras Temple.  It probably will never happen, but I can dream can't I?  Anyways, I'mma try to send some pics right now.  I love you all tons!  thanks for being awesome.

Elder Sensenbaugh and I in our sweet cleaning the house uniforms

Love, Danny "No bullets in the chamber" Harding

23-- cuz you KNOW I never leave a bullet in the chamber

So dad, first off about your question about the tree of life.  You asked which of the groups of people are the happiest, and why.  I found like 5 or 6 groups (you know me, I just had to one up you) and there were TWO happy groups.  obviously the ones who ate of the fruit and enjoyed it.  But then there was also the group in the great and spacious building.  It kind of made me think for a second why the prideful were happy as well.  And it even bugged me a little haha, cuz you would think that they should NOT have happiness cause they`re NOT following the gospel.  For me, it all came down to pride.  The humble ones KNEW that they couldn't find happiness for themselves, that they had to go to the source of true joy, (the love of God), in order to be happy.  Some people went to the tree, but not with that humility.  They went just to try, and since they were prideful and didn't really care about the tree, they just wanted to test it out, they just immediately got lost in strange roads.  (those people that got lost because of the darkness or in the river were the LEAST happiest by the way)  The ones in the building were happy for their own successes.  They thought that THEY had done everything, and so their joy came from themselves.  Which is a joy that can't last, because we're imperfect.  that joy has a limit.  But they were getting happiness as well for making fun of others.  So yeah, sure, you can be happy in the world, but it won't get you anywhere.  There will always be a limit.  And you`ll be a jerk, so no one will want to be your friend.  God's plan is EVERLASTING progress, and EVERLASTING joy, the joy without limits.  That eternal progression can come only through turning to the only EVERLASTING and ETERNAL being in the universe.  So Yeah, go ahead and forget about God, and live in the world, and enjoy your time there.  But you will never make it past your own weaknesses.  You will never make it past the wall that your own natural man has built.  And you will stay there, with a false, incomplete happiness until one day you come craying back to your father, as did the prodigal son, Finally ready to truly accept what you should have been heir to all along.  Thanks for telling me to read that dad, I hope that's a good enough analysis for you :)

Anyways, now that I got the spiritual stuff done, I'mma tell you how my week went down.  First of all, this business with 23.  Well 23 stands for the record that Elder Sensenbaugh and I set of the world.  We got 23 new investigators this week! And 4 new families!  Cause you know we don't leave bullets in the chamber! It was so sweet!  And it's not just like oh, yeah we taught them, all these people are positive! President fortuna told us that when he was in a small branch like this one, he had THIRTY investigators in church one week.  That's gonna be my goal here.  Yesterday we had 6, so it was a good start.  We are on a role. Or as we say here in Honduras, estamos echando fuego!

 As I opened my email today, I thought about how cool it would be to get a letter from my brothers every once in a while... but alas...  Tyler I almost took you off of the list to send the emails too!  I expect a good excuse.  and NEW GIRLFRIEND  does not count as a good one.  anyways, curtis and tyler, I need EXACT scripture sizes.  and which ones you have.  thanks broders!  and curtis, did you ever send those letters from EFY last year? 

otros asuntos: the hot chocolate here is not that great, so can you send me some of that GOOD stuff from costco?  thanks. I don't want to have to resort to Coffee.

I love you all, thanks for everything, peace out homies

Con amor, Danny "Super Baleada" Harding

ps the canales family got baptized in my old area.  good for them!  the dad stopped drinking and everything.  I'm so happy for them!  Welcome to the kingdom of God Familia canales!

Through the Fire and the Flames

Dude this week was crazy!  Honduras is totally going to the dogs!  This week there was a couple of crazy fires in the city.  Probably Taylor Adams went down in one of them.  But one of them was a prison.  It burned down and like 350 people died in it I think.  I heard there was just pictures of it in the newspaper and that it was awful.  There´s a rumor that the government started it so they wouldn´t have to keep supporting all of the people in the prison.  I don´t know if I believe that though.  Also there was another fire! Some gas thing exploded, and all of these little stores burned down.  I think it was like the place we went to in Peru where they had the black market, and all those stores were selling different things you know?  So yeah, that one was also in the city.  We could see the smoke from our area.  It was loco.  Just a TON of black smoke.  Also I heard that someone got killed a couple blocks from my house.  So hopefully they don´t find my companion and I as well.  So yeah, I don´t know what´s going down here.  All I can say is signs of the times, signs of the times.  The second coming is nearly upon us.

I finished my first change in Honduras!  Only like.. not that many more to go!  Man it´s crazy, I´mma be home in no time!  My comp and I got better for a little while.  We saw some members from his first area, and I think it sort of reminded him of his excitement he had to be a missionary when he first got here.  So that was good.  But I´m still working my hardest to love him more and more!  As humans were so weak and just so naturally bad that´s it´s hard to get out of it.  But also, we´re children of God.  So that means we have the strength, the divine heritage, to be able to overcome any challenge, and be perfect one day in the far off future.  So I´m just working at being better always!  And thanks for all the advice that you all gave me.  You all said different things, but it was the perfect combo of help that I needed.  You guys rock.  I totally took you guys for granted before, but I love you all more than ever now!

So I was remembering how you guys have 1000 boxes of cereal in our house..  And I was wondering if you´ve even eaten any cereal since i´ve left.  You guys better get to work on that!  Haha if not then you better at least just start gifting it to everyone you see.  Oh you guys could take it with you in the car and give it to homeless people!  I just barely had that idea.  Sweet.

Oh yeah, my companion LOVES cars.  haha so mom could you send me some pics of your car, especially the controls on the inside.  He wanted to see that.  Thanks a lot! That new set up in the living room is nuts!  That´s way better than before.  Holy cow you guys have some sweet stuff.  I wish I had a couch :(  haha just kidding, my metal chair rocks your couch any day.  I don´t know if you guys told me what to do, but if you didn´t, can you tell me what I should do about my camera?  Just wondering, cause I´m all alone in the world without a camera! But it´s chill, I´m surviving.  Cause you know I don´t leave bullets in the chamber!

I love you all so much!  Thanks for praying for me and supporting me.  I love you guys tons and tons!  Stay strong.  Keep reading the scrips.  

Love Elder Danny Robot Unicorn Harding

I'm a genius! but more of an idiot.

How are you guys!!  I´m glad to hear that life is going good for you guys.  For me it´s going good too!  Oh man all that talk with Tyler about paying his tuition and his housing made me worry about mine too.. Until I remembered...  What tuition?!  Ah man what a life.  In 20 months(and a little) I´m gonna be livin it good.

Today we had an activity as a zone because we were the cleanest Zone in the mission!  So we went to the Zoo, which is basically exactly like the zoo we went to in Peru.  It was pretty neat.  Yeah everything here is pretty much like Peru.  It seems a lot like a mix of Peru and the US.  If I were to describe it I would say that Honduras is Latin with a lot of american influence, while Peru is latin with a lot of European influence.  Well, I´ve never been to Europe, but if I did know anything about it, I would expect it to be more like that.  That´s the best I can describe it haha.  Speaking of cleanest zone, My companion and I also got an email that told us that our house was the cleanest of our zone!  Word yo.  That just goes to show that I don´t leave bullets in the chamber, even when it comes to cleaning.

MOM AND DAD!!!  YOU GUYS ARE IN BIG TROUBLE!  Why in the world are you guys not on a mission?  Try to give me one good reason.  The Ray´s (the senior couple in our mission)  told me that the world is 8000 senior couples short!  And with the new rules for senior missionaries you guys could even be home before I get back!  Think about it.  It´s a good idea.  And the age limit is 40!  So you guys are good to go!

Ok so the reason I´m a genius:  I started to boil water in the morning, and then put it in my bucket so that I could shower.  Now I´m showering with pretty warm water every day!  I feel like such a boss.  Ok so the reason I´m an idiot.  OH man I feel so dumb even saying it.  But I guess it´s a Harding thing to have problems like this..  Well actually there´s good and bad news here.  The bad news.  I lost my camera.  It must have just slipped out of my pocket on the bus.  I didn´t really have very many pictures on it so it´s ok. Plus I still have a memory card and a battery, so i just need a camera!  So yeah, the bad news is I´m now down a camera.  The even better news though is that now one of my Catracho brothers has a sweet new camera!  And photos of a bunch of gringos!  Oh man I´m so happy for him.  He needed it more than me I´m sure. 

You ask if I´m safe in Pedregal?  Let´s just say that Pedregal is an area where sister missionarys aren´t allowed to go.  :)  That´s what I´m talking about.

Ok so you guys gotta send me a picture of your new tv!  And curtis, a picture of the old tv in your apartment.  Do you have the wii wthere?  That´d be sweet.  MOM, how´s it going as primary director?  I bet that´s way fun for you!  Also are you guys going to sell Dad´s dental practice in Provo?  What´s the scoop?  and how are the Mavs doing?  Thanks for writing longer letters today!  I´m gonna run out of lempiras from printing them all!  But that´s a good thing.  So keep sending em long!  I love you all, and I hope you all love life a LOT!

Happy Valentines Day to everybody!  Enjoy the day of LOVE!!  Love everyone. That´s my advice.  Danny out.

Love, Elder Danny Camp Rock Harding

Just another Week in Honduras

Hey family what´s up!!  This week was alright, but we´re still not having any success!  We have a few investigators though, so that´s good.  Haha so i just sat on the bus next to a mime.. that was sweet.  He didn´t really want to talk to me i think.  haha so that was pretty sweet.
  Oh yeah also with Doterra, the senior couple in our mission does it a little!  The ladies name is Sonya Ray, but her daughter is bigger than her.  Her name is Perla Ray.  She´s from Mexico and I guess helped open up down there.  Do you know them?
   This week we had some difficulties as a companionship.  The first one was a couple of days ago when we were contacting and my companion couldn´t handle getting rejected, so we went back to the house to ¨get water¨ but instead we just stayed there till dinner, which was like 50 minutes away.  So I tried to give him a pep talk like curtis did to his companion that one time but I don´t know if i helped or not.  i probably just did more damage haha, but at least I tried!  So he was really upset that day.   He had told me a couple days earlier that he doesn´t even like his mission!  how sad is that?  I feel bad for him that he doesn´t enjoy it. But I need some advice from you guys and all of the wisdom that you possess.  I feel like he doesn´t really like me, and I want to be able to be his friend, but I also don´t want to just give in to everything that he says.  How can i find a happy medium?  Don´t get me wrong, I love it here! but I just know I can be happier if we got along better.  Also we would have more success!
    Dude you guys never told me what you got for christmas!!  So let me know about that yo.  Also how´s mitt romney doing?  I was thinking about that mormon the other day.  Also mom, I have a question about ground beef.  is it ok if it gets sort of a green tint around the outside when it´s in the fridge?  I hope so, cause if not then I´ll probably die some day soon from eating it.
   Haha that is so funny what Nick said about mothers knowing everything in his talk!  haha it´s totally true too, you guys know everything.
Anyways that´s about it for this week!  Sorry i did´nt have as much time today!  I was a little slackin´.  Anyways, I love you guys, and thank you for your prayers!  They´re always helping me out!

Love, Elder Danny "T-Bone Steak" Harding

Welcome to the Jungle

Ok I only put that title so that you guys would think I got transfered to some crazy place.  Plus it´s a cool song. But yeah, I didn´t get transfered, still good old Pedregal!  No, I didn´t get my Patriarchal Blessing yet or my debit card, but I´ll have patience.  Tanner Johnson said it takes like 3 or 4 weeks to get things here anyways.  Oh yeah one thing the office elders told us is don´t send anything through Fed Ex!  Apparently they cost a lot, and when it gets here I have to pay as well!  haha that funny huh?  But yeah, thanks for sending the quad and hymnal, I´m sure it will get here in time because I´m gonna be with this companion for like 8 more weeks or something since He´s my trainer.  Good old Elder Osorio.  I might try to send pictures in a second.

Uh oh.  Sushi?  really?  Oh man that does bring back bad memories.  20 dollars for a sushi buffet or 20 dollars for a meat buffet... hmmm.. That´s not a hard choice.  Tucanos baby.  But hopefully for you guys mom will soon forget about that strange desire.  I have to tell you guys about the weather here!  it´s basically been perfect the whole time!  haha like mid 70s low 80s with a breeze pretty much every day.  There are some days that it´s a little uncomfortable to walk up hills because it´s hot, but really it´s all good.  Do you guys have snow yet?  Oh man I miss it!  but yeah you guys probably won´t get any this year.  bummer.

We were at this members house and they asked us the strangest question.  The dad was like is it ok to give a blessing to a bad child so that they will behave better?  haha I was just like uummm, I think just a normal prayer should work for that one..  haha that was funny.  Anyways, At that same house there was this clock on the wall, but it was crooked.  So I pushed it so that it wouldn´t be crooked anymore.  How nice of me I thought, I´m helping their clock...  But then when I let go it swung back and fell off the nail that was holding it up and the plastic around the outside totally broke!  haha whoops.  Amen to that clock I guess.  Now that family knows as well as anyone that I don´t leave bullets in the chamber.  I don´t know if I told you guys the good news last week, but we got bumped up from 30 minutes to 40 minutes for internet!  apparently it used to be an hour before I got here, but noone was writing good letter to the pres and only writing a little to the fam and more to the friends, so they changed it to 30 minutes, 20 for family and 10 for the pres.  But now because we´ve been good we get 30 minutes for you guys and 10 for pres.  What a blessing!  But what I don´t understand is how I, with only 30 minutes to type, organize your letters, and thank about what to say, can write more than you guys, who have all day to write and think and ponder!  hahayeah, but Maybe one day it will be all the way back to an hour for us!

Can you guys figure out Taylor Adams email address and let me know?  Thanks a bunch! 

Anyways that´s all for this week. I hope you guys love life as much as I do!  I´ll try to send pics next week!

Love, Elder Danny "Spaghetti Fingers" Harding