The Final countdown!!

So the time has finally come to cut me open and sew me up. I'm actually kinda excited, not many people can say that they got surgery in another country haha. Today I have to go in and get some blood tests or something. I will talk to President Flores today to see if I can call after my operation. If not Elder Ray should do. I am kinda sad to leave my area. I have been there for 5 months. I am going to be working in the office for at least 6 weeks during my recuperation. I think I actually might be the general secretary, but I sure hope not. I hate paper work....

So we had an amazing turn out Sunday, we had 12 investigators in sacrament meeting, two of which were families. One was the Ferrera Family!!! I think that they really enjoyed it, and realized what they had been missing out on. I'm thinking that they could possibly get baptized in April. Also the wife and younger daughter of the H family came. I am almost sure that they will get married this month. I'm kinda bummed that I wont be there for it haha.

So I'm sending some photos, the family is the H family, Govany the dad, Ada the mom, Cecila 20, and Gabriela 12. The other photo is of a guy don't worry haha. He is a little emo, but is way cool. I think he will be getting baptized soon, that is after he cuts his hair.

I had an interesting experience Tuesday night. We talked to a less active mom, well inactive, she hasn't attended church in like 15 years. Her two kids have been coming to church without her, and we had no idea why. Finally Tuesday she told us what was up. Her and her husband have been separated for like 3 years, and her kids don't know it. She caught him with another in bed and since then they have been living a lie. She told her kids that their dad has to work the whole week and only comes home Friday night and leaves Sunday morning. During this time she leaves to visit her mom or sister. We are going to try to get the family back together. If we cant.... well they would have to get divorced. The situation is complicated but its nothing that the gospel cant fix.

Well I love you so much, please no worries, I will be fine. I'm super excited for conference, and Mother's day is coming up..... my life is good, REAL good!!!





Love,

Elder Ahlborn

buenos dias!!! hey mom!!

Hey mom, no worries, everything is still fine here. I should be
going in for surgery in 10 days the 29th, you can tell the family
everything if you want. I don't have anything to hide.

My new mission president, President Fortuna will be coming in the
first of July. He is a young guy(43) from the Dominican republic. He
is black haha so he should be cool. I think his biography is on the
church website.
I had an interesting experience this last week with the H
family. The father, Govany is really an amazing guy, he didn't graduate
high school but he is super intelligent. He has accepted everything we
have taught and wants to get baptized, but there was always something
bugging him. A few weeks ago he told us that he wanted to talk with us
before i left. Friday night we finally talked. He has been smoking
marijuana for over 20 years, a real strong addicion. He told us that
he is ready to change, and that its going to be hard but he wants to
be baptized and be a better father. It was a privilege for me to see
him start the process of repentance. He should be getting married and
baptized in April. I'm sad I wont be there, but I'm thinking I can get
permission from Pres. Flores to attend the baptism.
I love you all so very much, I'm glad you got the letters. Please
be so careful with my memory cards, they have all my photos.
o last thing, today in Honduras is fathers day, so tell dad, HAPPY
FATHERS DAY, tell him to write me too haha.
I love you so much mom, please don't worry, I'm not going to die
and the Rays will take good care of me.
Elder Nathan Ahlborn

All is Well!!

So Thursday night I had an appointment with the Surgeon. He is qualified, and he is very smart. He speaks English which says alot about him haha. He told me that it was a really simple surgery and that there are not many complications. I'm not worried. The hospital is super nice, it really is one of the best in Honduras. Even the elevator was nice haha. I will be having my surgery March 29th at 1 30 in the afternoon. I have to stay over night, so I am sure that I will be able to call you from the hospital. O the name of my doctor is Roberto Esquivel if you want you can look him up on facebook, he is a good guy. An LDS doctor gave us the reference so I trust him, and you should too, so stop worrying =)

I thought I told you that President Flores changed the rules of emailing, we can only write our family, bishops ( tell Bishop Judd to email me) and stake presidents. Thanks for sending me the package, and putting my name in the temple, it means a lot =)



So I these last two weeks I have met some interesting people in my area. The first is named Hazam Khury Alyateem, He was born in Bethlehem and at age 5 moved to Detroit where he lived and worked. He was the owner of 3 liquor stores until he decided to stop drinking and got a job with the Government working as a translator. After he started working for Immigracion haha. His mother is from Honduras so he family and friends here, and his first wife is from here too. She and the daughter joined the Church in Detroit after Hazam and her got divorced, so he knows alot about the church. He got remarried in Israel and has a wife and baby boy there. He can speak four languages, English, Spanish, Hebrew and Arabic. He showed me how to write ELDER in Hebrew and Arabic haha. We have a lesson planned with him today. He will be leaving for the Israel in a week. Crazy right, I met a Jew speaking Spanish in Honduras.

The other guy is named Lucky. He is from some little town here in Honduras that nobody knows and he is like 55 years old. He studied at the University of Utah and has a masters degree in Forestry and National Resources from there. He works for the government here in Honduras. He knows salt lake, the temple, the lights, the Cristus, and pretty much everything about the church because he lived in Utah for like 5 or 6 years. o ya he can speak English too obviously. We have a lesson planned with him tomorrow, I'm pretty sure all the sisters at temple square probably already bombarded him with the lessons but we are going to see if it is his time.



I wanted to tell you that I bought a pair of like dress shoes that have a boot tread so no worries there, Also two more pairs of pants because my others are all dying haha. Can you call Mr. Mac to see if we still have money on credit there, I really think we do. Maybe you could send some shirts in a few months.



I know that April will be hard, but I am not worried. The Lord wants me to learn something from this. I know that this is the True church of God, restored by Joesph Smith. I can honestly say these things for myself.

Last week of February

So things here in Honduras have been good as always. Nothing to crazy has happened to me in the past few months which is weird hahaha.

I really just want to share one story with you. About three months ago I started teaching a family of three, Juliet the mom, Jorrlyn the oldest 17 years old, and Nelson 16. They have had a hard life. They had a lot of money at one point in time when their dad was alive, but sadly he was killed in Guatemala. He left an inheritance for them but for legal reasons they didn't receive it. They have struggled together for a long time. I baptized the sister of Juliet in December. After that we started teaching them, we even had a baptism date with them. They were really positive until we talked about the Word of Wisdom. Nelson and Juliet have a problem with smoking. I asked them to take the first step and give me all the cigarettes in the house but they refused and never let us into the house again. We dropped them in January. Last week I received the strong impression to go out of the way and visit them. Jorrlyn answered the door almost crying. She told me that Juliet is in the hospital with lung cancer, its terminal. The doctors think that they can extend her life with a surgery, but they just don't have the money for it. It made me really sad to see that her disobedience will probably cost her her life and it will affect her kids greatly. I am hoping that she will humble herself and by a miracle we can get her home to baptize her and prepare her to return to her Father in Heaven.
I love you all so much I pray for you and just want the best for you,
Elder Ahlborn

Ya one year wow!

Hey mom!! Thing are good here. Last Wednesday I was made District leader of Torocagua. Its funny because I have only been out of this area one time in my mission and for only two months, everyone says that mission call should have said, Honduras Torocagua mission haha. Ill at least be here until March maybe April. I don't have a problem with staying here in this area for so long because we have a ton of progressing families. I will keep you posted with baptisms like always, but as of now we don't have any baptism dates.
I'm still waiting for my companion to go to Mexico, who knows when he will go but it should be soon. He is super quite, people ask me if he speaks Spanish haha. He is really humble, not very educated, but he is an excellent missionary.
The time is going by so fast I don't even understand how its possible. I love serving, sometimes it is hard, almost always actually, but the mission shouldn't be easy. I am still learning alot, and I have the desire to BAPTIZE.

I love you all so very much!!! Send me pictures of the house and the snow!!

With all my love,
Elder Ahlborn

So the 70 that came was Elder Martino, he is from Texas, and he is a pretty cool servant of the Lord. He taught us that when we teach in members homes we baptize 3 of the 5 people we teach. I am going to try to apply this with two families that we are teaching. I want to baptize one of them this month, but we will see what the Lord says.
We baptized Jefferson the son of Giovania. Josue, a convert of 4 months and a huge help in the ward baptized Jefferson, it was amazing. Givonania was crying like you cry when we got baptized haha it was cute and brought back fond memories. They are defiantly converts, I have faith that he will serve a mission and that she will marry in the temple.
So we have heard that the temple here in Honduras should be done in June or something like that. I don't think I will have the opportunity to see the C family be sealed while on my mission. I Think Iwill be able to help my friend here in Centro America Oeste take out his endowment in September. I am just excited for the temple!!!
So I think I'm going to send this letter to you all soon, like this week, I'm going to send back a memory card, but the data in it is weird, the photos show up on the camera but not on the computer, please give it to peter so he can fix it but please don't delete any photos, this card has half of my mission on it!!

I am so glad that I was raised in our family. I do miss you but it has never been a distraction, only something to push me along, so I can help other families have what ours has.
Tell the kids to be good! Tell Dad that I love him, I wrote him but just in case. Say hi to the ward and family for me,
With much love!!!
Elder Ahlborn

A Week of Miracles!!!

Hey mom!! so I had an awesome week, but I'm dang tired haha. Sunday we had an attendance of 217 people, with 25 less actives in the church for the first time in over 3 months, and 12 investigators. One of the investigators, G, I have written about her before got baptized after church. Half of the ward attended her baptism, one of my best friends and a convert of 4 months, Josue V baptized her. It was amazing. We are going to baptize her son this Saturday. O ya the F family came to church!! all but the dad, Manuel but it's only a matter of time. I'm really loving this part of my mission, it's pretty hard but I just feel good, the Lord has given me a lot of strength. I'm going to send some photos of all the baptisms that I have had here in centro america.

I'm still with my companion, Elder B, he is the one in the first picture. He is still waiting for his papers to Mexico. We will see when he goes. He is a good guy. He reminds me of Brandon.

The temple should be done in June, and it should be dedicated in July. But who knows haha. I'm so dang excited. There was an apostle here to verify the work so I have a lot of faith that it should be done by June. Ill keep you posted.

This week Elder Martino, a member of the second quorum of the 70 is going to visit us. He is also going to accompany one of us.

Tell Steve congrates. (Nate's cousin Steve Williams got his mission call to Kobe Japan). It's good to have the support and prayers of you all.

I love you all!!!!

Elder Ahlborn