2024 complete -La Ceiba Week Nineteen

CHRISTMAS RUN DOWN

-had district counsil

-had a lunch at a members house with all the elders in the district

-worked from 2-9

-yah that's it

 

Basically christmas was another day but I gotta call my family for 10 mins at night so chilll✊️

 

Christmas eve night they shoot a ton of fireworks off like new years so president gave us permission to stay up till 12:30am(kinda weird but okay) Only probable is we live on a main road and nobody was shooting of fireworks so rip🥲

 

One funny story was as we were walking to this lesson this drunk dude asked if he could come. I was gonna say nk but my comp was like sure! So we show up to this families house with a drunk dude and I don't think they were too happy. The drunk guy kept preaching and interrupting us and them and claiming we were at his mom's house so he had permission to do whatever he wanted. Eventually we just decided to leave but saw a pet racoon on the way out so WORHT ITTT

 

But long week with alot of work I feel cooked but also good at the end of the night for working so much. It's exhausting and waking up is BRUTAL totally fell asleep in church but thats aight I blame it on not understanding the talks

 

READ THIS MAYBE

K mission is still rough at times and I've been thinking a lot about the future recently. Stuff like dang life after the mission will be perfect, I'm so excited for college, so excited for this and that. I felt sometimes bad for not enjoying the mission in the moment like I was doing something wrong. But something I read this week was that this was how jesus lived his life. If he had focused on the moment how would he have been able to complete his life? Literally was the most perfect person yet treated so terribly. He had to look towards the future for some type of hope. 

 

Happy new years drink some martinelees for me🥲🙏🙏

 

Members Exist and Christmas-La Ceiba Week Eighteen

🎅Let me just say having members in your area is a total GAME CHANGER not only that but active members?!?! Waaaattttt

 

New area is pretty chill, the missionary who was here before me only had one more transfer than me so his spanish was terrible too, but apparently it was worse than mine so after I say my name and where Im from the members are like danggggg this guys spanish is pretty good. So yah getting compliments from old latina women is my driving factor rn🔥🔥 

 

New comp likes to work hard and is SUPER obedient which has made the transition from my last comp a little complicated. Like we were stopping at some members house for food and the member was playing 8ball on his phone and he's like oh take my phone and play for me and I'll go grab your food. And he hands it to my comp and bros like sorry we can't do that. So I grabbed that phone outta his hand so fast cause I need some screen time and shot that 8 ball straight into a pocket. Let's just say ive lost some skills in these 4 months.

 

We had christmas zone conference this week but that's the best of the christmas spirit we got out here in honduras. I asked my comp if we getta do anything special for christmas and he went "ya work" so dubsss extra blessings

 

That's it from me this week hope everyone has a chill christmas eve and christmas and go read some Luke 2 that stuff is so good

 

Greener Grass On The Other Side- Morazan Seventeen

 TRANSFERSSSS

Basically the only important thing that happened this week happened last night at 11:15pm when the ZLS called our phone and my best friend who I sadly had to say goodbye to cause he's going home in 2 days uttered the beautiful words "elder shanklin is going to MONTECRISTO" of course I had no idea what this meant and then i was told I have a comp who I knew nothing about but lets just say I pulled on this transfer

 

Montecristo facts

-on the coast

-next to La Cieba (huge city where we have zone conference)

-has a wendys🔥🔥🔥🔥

-has a port for cruise lines and boats and stuff

-HAS A CHURCH BUILDING WITH MEMBERS

-on the other side of this country

 

Hills of Honduras

Comp facts

-13 months in

-from guatemala city

-currently district leader

-got trained by my current ZL who says hes goated

-speaks perfect english

-is apparently a dope guy but also great missionary

 

I'm not going to lie this might be the most direct answer to a pray I've recieved in a really long time. And i know for sure it wasn't just my prayers so thanks everybody for that. I also think its interesting that the moment I received this answer was at a make or break point. The past 12 weeks have been HARD like i cant describe it. There have been countless nights of going to bed frustrated at mostly everything about mission life. Wondering why Spanish isn't coming quicker or other things. But I love what Elder Uchtdorf said last conference

 

"Faith is not faith if never tested"

 

having faith wont simply make our problems go away. Alot of the time (and it sucks to say) faith does just simply mean believing god knows what's best for you. If you never experience the bad, then how would you know the good?

 

Elder Shanklins artwork

next time itll be christmas eve🎅

Christmas Changos- Morazan Week Eighteen

 

This one a short one cause running out of pday time but not much happened anyways

Elder Shanklin  and his companion

A view of Rykers area

 I've seen other missionaries doing list and it looked smart so here yah go🔥

  -comp goes home in 9 days

-again did negative missionary work

-being playing qwixx every night with an elder and it's a w board game

-christmas devotional from first presidency was 10/10

-went to a BBQ place that was not bad and they didn't charge me for my drink so even better

 

But long story short having a dying missionary for second transfer in the field has been kinda brutal. My motivation has kinda plummeted but hopes are up with transfers and CHRISTMASSS so we chilling. Shootout to all the boys who are training guys out of training sounds rough haha. We've only got 3 sisters coming in this transfer so I guess I would train if I had too... 

 

Elder Shanklin and companion

ANYWAYS Christmas devotional was sick go watch it if you haven't. My favorite part was when (can't remember who) was explaining how Christmas makes everybody kinder, nicer, humbler, more forgiving, géneros, literally Christmas makes people better versiones of themselves. But they then say its not just christmas its because christmas representa christ. Literally christ has so much power and influence it can effect people around the world.

 

Have a good week out there

Elder shanklin

I'm in Europe??? - Morazan Week Seventeen

 Im not just to get that outta the way, i am still in honduras but this week i felt like i was teaching in Europe. Everyday was 8 hours of being told "im busy" or "oh come back later" or just nobody bring home. One day we contacted for like 6 hours and only 4 new people and none of them seemed interested but its alright honestly feels good to at least be out working cause my comp is DYING like so fast one day he at 2pm he was like I'm so tired and then just didn't do anything the rest of the day. But in the words of my mission president "keep going elder one thing that's always true is TRANSFERS END" yep got my president on my side rn.

 

This week was zone conference though which is always dope gotta see all the elders who came in with me. And it was also THANKSGIVINGG🔥🔥🦅🏈🇺🇸 so zone conference they had thanksgiving food. Ofc actually thanksgiving we spent all day teaching some dude we have on date for baptism↗️↗️ but the girl he is dating is a member so ill keep you updated on if he goes through with it. Thanksgiving night our penchanista bailed on us so had to fend for myself with food and thats not good so bought some martinelles and ramen and munched.

 

Thanksgiving dinner for Elder Shanklin

You'd think being in murder capital country id have more interesting stories but nothing really been going on recently so PLS send some prayers for something interesting to happen.

 

but you know what did happen MICHIGAN BABY GO BLUEEEEE🇺🇸🏈🤩

 

But yes highlights of my week thanks for all the emails and voice memos from everyone

 

Shoutout to nate tracey if he ever sees this (i know someome gonna screen shot this and send it to him) but he sent an email talking about how sometimes we are doing exactly what god wants and still life is terrible. That sometimes youve built a boat sailing to a distance land and your brothers tie you up and leave you in a storm. Nephi followed god and still suffered, what makes us think itll be different in our lives? Dont lose faith and again shoutout to nate🙏

Just A Lot of Rain-Morazan Week Sixteen

 

For all those who are keeping up with Honduras weather we had a HUGE storm hit us this week. I think some people died and lots of building and or mudslides but I was unaffected so the grind continues well actually idk if you can call this week a grind I think we did negative missionary work

 

DRUNK GUYS

I did an exchange with our district leader on Tuesday and he also lives on in our house so basically after lunch he was like "yo wanna go on an exchange" and i said heck yah and boom two white guy strolling down Honduras roads. Nothin too much happened except we got stopped by this guy owning a barber shop who was WASTED. There was actually three of them. one dude was struggling to stand, the other had bright red eyes and was smoking a cigarette, and the third was drinking straight alcohol. I think every drug illegal and illegal was being consumed here. But we talked with them for a sec and gave them a pamphlet about Jesus taught them that Utah was next to California (they'll never know) and boom we outta there.

 

Elder Shanklin and  Elder Cruz were asked if they were Jehovah's Witness this week.
Surprise...they are not

STORM🏄‍♂️🏄‍♂️

K so it basically dumped rain for 3 days straight AND I WAS FOR IT I love rain but rain means everybody just wants to sleep all day so its bad for missionary work. Our president also sent a text saying to not take any risks and stay inside and work through the phone if needed... I wouldn't call it disobedient but monopoly deal and some ukulele lessons went crazy that day. Also the day before and the day after my comps lungs were dying and then my lungs started dying but we chill now🤙

 

HECTOR

one day this random kid at 8pm yelled "ELDER SHANKLIN" this was shocking cause not only did this kid say it right but no way he remembered me. Update i still never talk to people (I'm trying) so i was shook that i had a lasting impact or smth. We ended up talking a bit about his homework assignment due tmrw and if i liked Ronaldo or Messi, I let the fans guess on that one. But anyways towards the end of the lesson my comp ask where he lives and then pulls out our app that we keep tabs on everybody. He showed us his house, my comp tapped on the icon there, and then asked if (blank) was his dad. The kid got wide eyed and then looked at me and asked "did you tell him?" "how does he know my dad?". I looked at him dead in the eye and said "its the power of god". immediately his eyes shot up and he pointed at the sky and did the little hand signal on the chest and head while gasping super loud. I then said if we comes to church he can have this power (not false) so basically new baptism coming up

 

A snow cone to keep Elder Shanklin happy

That's mostly it this week not a ton of missionary work accomplished but got Christmas comming up so hope that gets the train moving

 e. shanklin

Snow Cones Save Lives-Morazan Week Fifteen

 

I think I felt every emotion possible this week so that's kinda cool

 NEW COMP

So new comp is interesting guy, he has 6 weeks left and i would consider him a "dead missionary" like he's ready to go home. But he's tooooo prideful to admit that he keeps saying how much he loves the mission and wants to stay but bro hasn't unpacked his suitcase yet and its been 5 days so kinda doubting him. since he's dead I've been doing ALOT of the work here, basically everything besides teaching the main part of lessons I'm doing. I plan the day, start the contacts or do the full contact, introduce my comp and start the lesson, end the lesson. ITS BRUTAL I'm learning a lot but makes wanting to get out and do work a challenge.

 

Elder Shanklin and Elder Cruz
Snow Cones make Elder Shanklin happy.  He said they cost about $2.00

I think that's mostly it this week really not a lot happened, all of the baptismal dates my last comp set apparently weren't real so that was cool. And a lot of the people we've been teaching aren't making progress so have to drop like all of them.

 

Beautiful Sunset in Morazan

Missions are hard so prayers would be accepted but love all you guys for the support

 

28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest

 

I love this verse cause sometimes the mission gets to be just too much and I know god realizes that and I know god loves hard work but he also wants us to be able to rest and enjoy life, so i took that too heart and went and bought a snow cone one day when I was way overwhelmed #worthit

 

Elder Shanklin thought this was funny!
Can you see the problem?

Have a good week and rest up

 

-e shanklin

Death Threats and Homemade Bombs- Morazan Week Fourteen

okay so dont know what brought you to reading this email today but we are gonna start with

 HALLOWEEENNN Hopes for Halloween were not high because they don't celebrate it here. I mean some decorations once in a while but no blow ups or anything like weird masks or signs that just say "happy halloween" so yah I wasn't expecting anything crazy. One of the elders in my house tho has never carved pumpkins and he goes home in 2 days so last week we went on the hunt for some pumpkins and halloween night we carved pumpkins and dressed up as ghosts. I whipped out a sailboat in like 5 minutes which I thought wasn't too bad. But yah for mission halloween not bad 

Spooky Missionaries

Elder Shanklin with his pumpkin that he carved

Halloween Fun

 K DEATH THREATS So I'm really oblivious here but one day we got a text from this lady and it was about us owing her money or something. We were confused and didn't think too much of it. THEN the next day as we leave to start working there are these two dudes outside our gate. They were way nice tho and said we needed to pay for our house. We told them the financial person at the mission office pays for that and gave them the number and left thinking we were good. Welp the next morning we woke up to a piece of paper on our gate that said "Pay or you are going to pay, Hell is empty" so uhhh yah WOOO HONDURAS we called the AP and he told us to sleep somewhere else for the night but we ended up calling the lady and she told us she got the money and that some lady that works for her stole $16,000 usd from her and part of that was our money. So don't really know whats happening but i think somebodys probably gonna die hopefully not us 

The note left on their door which reads:
"Pay or you are going to pay, Hell is empty"

 HOMEMADE BOMBS to celebrate elder hiraldo going home we made a fake version of himself and drenched it in gasoline. we might be missionaries but that doesn't mean we aren't stupid. IT WAS AWESOME THO it literally blew up and luckily it rained that day or I think or house would've burned down,  God really be looking out for us 

 TRANSFERS Bro they transferred my stats from real life, I GOT TWO DADS (meaning they are going home after this transfer) heard mixed things about my new comp but i meet him wednesday and will report how he is next week 

Santa Rita Part Two- Morazan Week Thirteen

 YESSSIR THATS RIGHT WE WENT BACK TO SANTA RITA

This week was the first real exchanges I had and I went with the ZL uh oh good thing I got a heads up except he was a TOTAL TROLL🦧🦧

Elder Shanklin and the  Zone Leader

Fun facts about the ZL

-his biggest dream is to meet big time rush

-he wants a wife for Christmas (he goes home next transfer

-if he cant get a wife he wants a ps5 to play spiderman 2

-he always hits children in the head with a book of mormon

-oh and he's from Guatemala

Streets of Morazan

So basically dw about me I'm in good hands out here in Honduras WOOOO It was actually such a W day though. He knew how to involve me in lessons (unlike maybe somebody else I spend all day with) and I feel like I learned more spanish in this day than the whole month I been out here. He also thinks I'm going to be an AP one day so everybody send your prayers to stop that from happening🙏 Before the exchange he sent me a list of things he wanted to learn from me and I did it back. I said I wanted to enjoy the mission and oh man I think he took that to heart. We just went from members house to members house and SO MUCH FOOD it was a dream come true. We also went on top of this super high mountain and got some cool pictures AND I gotta watch this girl play roblox to end the night🔥🔥

The schedule for the day while with the Zone Leader

Elder Shanklins bed for the night

Besides exchanges this week was a draggggg I think my comp thinks I should be fluent in spanish rn cause he's gotten less and less patient with me not knowing how to talk to people but that's alright we got transfers in a few days so hopes are high🙏

A popsicle makes everyones day brighter

Spiritual Part (try not to skip challenge)

I don't know If I'm just tripping but I've never really considered that this is the EXACT same church Jesus Christ established during his life. Like obviously it is but we taught that so much this week it made me realize how much sense this church makes. We are "The church of JESUS CHRIST of latter day saints" and its crazy to me that when people here that from us they still are like nah somethings wrong here and turn us away. Ofc everybody needs to learn for themselves but i am so grateful to be living the things Jesus Christ himself taught🤝🤝

Elder shanklin

I Think My Penchanista Plays Poker-Morazan Week Twelve

 Guys stuff went down this week lets get into it

PENCHANISTA

So for those who don't know in Honduras we have a person who makes food for us when the members don't want to feed us (all the time in my area). So we pay her to make us food and TRUST its SO NICE to not have to worry about food. I just go to a house sit down and boom 4 baleadas on my plate its a miracle. Welp it was a miracle until this week😭

THE GAME PLAN

K so the elders in my house thought she was too expensive so we had a plan. We were going to bluff our way to a lower price. The plan was we say its too expensive for lunch and dinner (we were paying 1500 or about $60) and then offer we pay a lesser price for only lunch (700 or $28ish). What we really wanted was her to say "no no your fine ill lower the price to 1000 for both meals". Well that is not what happened. What I didn't know, and which I believe to be the only explanation, is that our penchanista plays poker because she read our bluff TOO GOOD. She said we can either pay full price or make our own food... welp at the bottom of my email is my first home made baleada if that explains what we decided😁

Dinner cooked by the Penchanista ^^

Elder Shanklins first homemade Baleada

Elder Shanklins kitchen.  Notice the bucket of water..
it has many uses: cooking, flushing toilets, and showering.

Besides that I really don't know what happened this week its just work haha. We started roasting marshmallows over our electric oven at night time which is a good way to relax after a hard day would recommend. But yah if anybody got easy recipes send them my way, I mean I did take up to Foods 2 in high school so I am basically a chef but scrambled eggs and baleades can only get you so far

Morazan, Honduras

Elder Shanklin and his companion

Somebody Find Me Dora Cause I Need A Map -Morazan Week Eleven

 

WELCOME TO THIS WEEKS GAME OF WHO DID WE JUST TALK TO!!!!

 

Was it an investigator, a member, or a random drunk person? Guess well never know cause I never know!

 

K but in all seriousness I am so lost here💀 you'd think after 3 weeks you'd pick up on some small things or start to figure stuff out but nah I'm still just following my trainer around not knowing what's going on. Right now we are in the mission home 3 hours from our area cause we have zone conference tomorrow and idk where I am  staying the night so WOOOOO🔥🔥🔥

This is where he ended up sleeping

 Going back in time tho, this week was just work work work, not a ton of success (at least that's what I think lol) We had the temple dedication on Sunday for the San Pedro Sula temple which was dope never been to one of those and only members can come (its broadcasted to the church building) so I finally could identify who the members where. I think there were 18 who came and elder Renlund spoke in spanish which was cool and imo (in my opinion) he sounded pretty good

 

SANTA RITA

K so after the temple dedication we found out we are going to stay the night at our zone leaders houses. I don't think this is allowed cause everyone in the zone came and stayed the night (like 12 elders) and they don't like when 4 elders share a house so whooops. ANYWAYS I gotta explore Santa Rita and it was so nice to see something new. I met a monkey who is apparently someone's pet and then found a sick river and got some pictures of it so enjoy

 

The pet monkey

Elder Shanklin and the river.
He said just before this picture people were jet skiing on the river.

K gotta be honest the mission has not been my favorite so far. Lots of challenges and just a different way of living in a completely new place. BUT shoutout to my boy Elder Crook from the CCM he shared a super cool talk called "A High Priest of Good Things to Come" by Jeffrey R Holland. Not knowing the language right now and everything has made the days not super enjoyable but in this talk Holland says how through Jesus Christ things will ALWAYS get better you just gotta hold on. Also gotta give a quick shoutout to all the support from everybody the emails mean so much love you guys❤️

 

Soccer for pday

Just some goats on the side of the road

Elder Shanklin

 

Spawn Point for Dogs-Morazan Week Nine & Ten

 Guys I think I found where all the dogs in the world spawn from. Its this town in the middle of nowhere in honduras called Morazan. There is dogs EVERYWHERE and we will be teaching a family and a random dog will walk through the middle of us and then disapear so I think its a community effort to care for all of them. Sad news is I cant bring my phone out so havent gotten any pictures of them

ANWAYS WE IN HONDURAS lots of ups and downs this first week. From my first member food being oatmeal in cold water (I think it was a drink?) to getting to go to the temple TWICE🔥🔥🔥

I don't want these emails to be long but a lot to explain in this one so if you make it to the end respect. So yah my first area is Morazan and there is legit nothing here. There is maybe 30 ward members and we don't have a chapel just a buildin that says the churches name on it. Our house doesn't have water so new experience unlocked, bucket showers. They aren't too bad but they don't hide my crying like normal showers. JOKES JOKES. My brothers all said they cried on there missions but we going strong.

My trainer is only 5 months in the mission and he is dedicated to the work. Our proselyting time ends at 8pm and it will be 7:55 and he will go knock another door. He only knows a little english so a lot of time to think about how crazy all of this is.

Elder Shanklin and his companion

We are one of the only areas to have 4 elders living in a house. Its pretty dope cause the others guys both speak english and one of them this is his last transfer so we got a Best Two Years situation over here. Except I am not a elder Calhoun lol I've been hyping him up that he's going home and he keeps saying its making him have less motivation💀

We went to the temple on Saturday and I had to stand for 6 hours total cause the bus was full and all the missionaries kept saying  "Bro this is such a honduras experience" There were these two kids tho that I got to talk to and I had a convo with one of them about minecraft, fortnite, mrbeast, and he was wearing a georgia bulldogs jersey so I showed him that I was a fan🔥 We are tight now I saw him after the temple and he ran over and dapped me up but Ill probably never see him again

 

Elder Shanklin and his companion at the temple

All the incoming missionaries at the temple with mission leaders

Anways these past few days have been pretty rough and long. Not knowing spanish is BRUTAL and I have so much respect for people who have served language speaking missions.

Yesterday (sunday) was an extra long day and we also cant buy water on sundays. I was hungry, tired, and dehydrated and we went to get dinner from our panchanista. I was really struggling mentally and just needed smth to lighten to mood. When I went to pour my drink the pepsi bottle buckled as I was lowering it and I spilled over the entire table. It sounds bad but we were all dying laughing. It was a cool moment cause it made me remember God always answers your prayers just might not be how you expect it.

PEACE OUT CCM- CCM Week Eight

 There isnt a whole lot to say this week besides tomorrow IM IN HONDURAS so hyped we finally getting out and starting the real mission

 

Elder Shanklin in class

Lots of fun this last week both of our teachers kinda ditched us so we had some subs but its okay we survived and made it to the end. Some guy in our district is Batman so he let us use his mask which was way nice i didnt know batman was chill like that. Sand volleyball and ultimate been going crazy as usual and alot of free time over the past two days to pack and get ready for traveling which has been nice.

 

Little bit of rain in the CCM

Thats mostly it but trust next week there will be some good stuff

 

My mom shares this quote with me alot "God loves us and watches over us but it is usually through another person that he meets our needs!"

-Spencer W Kimball

 

Elder Shanklins district in the CCM

Dont be the reason somebodys prayer doesnt get answered, listen to promptings!

 

Elder Shanklin

 

VIVA MEXICO-CCM Week Seven

 

So you know that team that beat us in ultimate Frisbee last week. Yah rematch happened this week and lets just say it was not a friendly game. Trash talk was going crazy and the contact between teams was probably too intense the CCM. But we came out with a dub so a w is a w. One player on the other team (also going to Honduras) was pretty big in the trash talk and after nailing someone in our district with their follow through, he started some trash talk and all I heard was "shutup mashed potatoes". So yah now there's some beef with the district in our house but we only got one more week so not too big a problem. And you best believe we aint rematching them ,we leaving the CCM as champs.

 

Thunderstorm at the CCM

Elder Shanklin-Honduras and Elder Walker-Guatemala
(friends from AF-See ya in 2 years!)

Elder Walker, Elder White and Elder Shanklin
(friends from AF- Elder White and Elder Shanklin entered the CCM on the same day)

Yesterday was day of independence for Mexico and honestly not to much different from other days. A mariachi band for dinner and some mexican treats for lunch and dinner. At 9pm all the missionaries met at the gym and we did a grito? Idk what its called but we all yelled and then started a giant mosh pit. It was so hype brought me back to the high school dance days back in the prime. The president also didn't shut the mosh down he started taking a video and we were all chanting "VIVA MEXICO" so yah pretty hype holiday.

Thats pretty much all that happened this week. One week till I'm in Honduras with my terrible spanish teaching about Jesus and i am so ready. I love my mission and it hasn't even really started yet.

 

For 2 weeks they speak only Spanish in the CCM

Elder Shanklins teacher-Hermano Torres
They had some fun learning spanish while sorting houses
Hermano Torres is a Ravenclaw -smh

Mexico City on the way to the temple

Some sketchy place the Elders  found at the CCM

Last but not least shoutout to my dad, 8 years ago today my dad passed away but he still is one the best examples of who I want to be. I love everything he stood for. A great father, husband, friend, bishop, stake president. However you knew him as you know he loved to serve. So go and serve somebody you might be an answer to their prayers.

 

Elder Shawn Shanklin-Peru Lima East Mission 1988-1990

Elder Shanklin