43: Feliz Navidad

Feliz Navidad! It was a wonderful Christmas, my favorite yet, and even more exciting because we are training in a trio!

We still havent been able to have changes as a mission so we were assigned a new missionary to train for the time being, Hermana Garcia! She is a great missionary and were grateful to have her. 

I feel like its been so long since Ive written a group email to everyone, where do I start! Investigators are all always changing except the Tercero family. Last week we asked them the baptismal interview questions and they werent able to respond to all of them. It is killing me, they are so close! We are trying all sorts of things to help them on their way of receiving that testimony, but any time now they should be ready.

We had a really incredible experience on Saturday. We were contacting and knocked on the door of a man who has not gone to church in years and shared a lesson with him. After we asked him for references he told us "theres a man who lives down the hill that has wanted to go to church but he feels awkward going alone, and hes read the whole Book of Mormon and knows the church is true". So we went to his house and he is golden! He watched general conference all on his own and he wanted to get baptized but didnt know how to get started going to church. That was a testament to me that the Lord really is always guiding us if were doing what we should be doing and are obedient.

And Christmas! The big day for celebrating is Christmas Eve here, so we has church and were visiting all day, EATING all day. I had my first Nacatamales, Torejas, and Rosquillas en Miel, all delicious! Then that night we went caroling to houses of less actives and older people in our ward and after our dinner with the familia Elwin, I told my compaions I think that was the happiest I have ever been. The next day was a lot of visiting and singing and of course skyping :) A very merry Christmas.

I love this work! This really is the happiest Ive ever been in my life. I know this gospel is true and I love the light Christs gospel brings into my life. He lives and he redeems us!

1-3: We did secret santa as a zone and Hermana Gonzalez and I bought the same thing to gice to Elder Guerra and Elder Cates: shirts that say "I survived a mission trip in Honduras" and rancher hats. We thought it was funny so we tried them on first before gifting them :)

4: Divisions with Hermana Bissell, Hermana Gabriella, and Hermana Beltran

5: Hermanas :)

6-7: Some of the kids / cousins in the Famila Tercero

8-10: Ward Christmas party

11: I didnt see Santa but I got to see some nice views from the Santa Margarita

12-13: Tamales, Torejas

14-17: Families we visited on Christmas Eve. and Christmas day. Elwins, Pati, Victoria and Andrea, and the Inestroza family

Christmas Day Skype with Hermana Morgan

Hermanas

Hermana Garcia (Nicaragua), Hermana Morgan, Hermana Gonzalez (Las Vegas)

42: Lock Down

Sorry we only have 30 minutes to write today in a members house before going back inside, the result came out last night. Still safe, we just dont really know whats going on so we are just trusting in what people and our leaders are telling us. I hope you guys can get the voice recording, could you see how expensive those are in the US? It would be like 40 or 50 dollars here for a new one.

Changes were supposed to happen today (were both staying here in Girasoles) but everything for this week got cancelled. The new missionaries are juts staying in the MTC, all the missionaries going to their homes had to leave all of the sudden last week to miss this craziness, the mission chirstmas party is cancelled :( but Ill still be calling you guys dont worry! No idea what time or where because we dont even konw whats happening to us tomorrow, but Ill have Dennis or someone tell you.

Im excited to see you! Have a merry Christmas week :)

41: Ilumina El Mundo

Sorry its been a bit! Weve been on and off lockdown for elections this month. We are still waiting on the result, so we will see what happens in these next few weeks. But Im all safe, along with all the other missionaries.

We havent had much time to work, especially at night, so it has been hard to see a lot of our investigators. Many of our important investigators we can only see at night because they work. We spent a lot of time finding new investigators and visiting less actives during the day and praying each day that we get more time outisde at night to find our investigators.

The familia Tercero we hadnt seen in over two weeks just with everything that went on, but we got to see them last night. We spent a lot of time planning for them in our weekly planning, they needed something powerful. I offered to say a prayer to know what we should do to make them feel a powerful spirit. We delibertaed for a lot of time but we ended up reading a line from Preach My Gospel that said the most powerful thing we can share with people is our testimony, so that is what we decided to do. We left them a note during the week for them to read Alma 7, so we discussed that chapter and Hermana Gonzalez, Dennis, and I all bore our testimonies. I got pretty teary. They are so close! And we love them so much!

We had our zone conference two weeks ago and those always get me even more excited about missionary work. Our zone leaders gave a workshop where we analized Doctrine and Covernants 4. We started everying on our feet reciting the section. 18 missionaries citing that all together is something powerful. We ended up talking a lot about faith and knowledge, developing as much as we possibly can, and using the power of prawer to ask for the rest. Our zone is incredible, we have some really special missionaries in our mission.

And ILUMINA EL MUNDO!!!!! O sea LIGHT THE WORLD. The best thing that has ever happened to missionary work in central america. The church has set up different programs for the campaign in different parts of the world, and here we are supposed to have Family Home Evenings in houses of members with their nonmember friends the whole month of December leading up to Christmas. With us having to stay in our house we havent been able to have any, but we will have one every night starting tomorrow leading up to Christmas. And of course talking about the campaign and Christmas is an easy way to get a conversation started and teach people. We are loving it. Que sea este mundo lleno de luz!

And I am now 20 and 9 months old! All in one week! That is crazy to me, I still feel like one of the newbie missionaries, the time goes by so fast. Thanks to everyone that wrote me, love you all :)

1: What I bought myself for my birthday

2-5: Our Thanksgiving dinner we made the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Pierogies, arroz con leche, and frijoles

6-8: Birthday presents, pancakes from Hna Gonzalez and from my family. Lost of love

9: Zone conference Hermanas - from Zonas Tegucigalpa, Uyuca and Guaymuras

10: Hna Balden :)

11: Hermana Elwin was selling pastelitos on my birthday and gave us some as we walked by :) a wonderful woman

12: Hermana Chase had us over to do medical insurance, and to eat their thanksgiving leftovers!!!! Not too far from home

13-15: Some of our creations while we were in the house this week, no bake cookies, the beginnings of a honduran recipe book, and a christmas tree

39: Lock Down

Woo where do I start! I just feel so great, free!!!!!! For the next two hours until were to be locked in houses again.

We have been in our houses since Thursday at about 4:30, so I have read, written letters, made a honduran cookbook, cooked a bunch of random things with whatever we had in our house, and am running out of things to do! Cant even sleep during the day because my body is so accumstomed to 10-6 every night! We decided we have to get up every hour and do some sort of exersize because were going to drive ourselves crazy just laying down.

Yesterday the Chavez family that lives in the part of our house right above us had us over to partake of the sacrament and watch the christmas devotional. They are awesome, he is a seventy by the way and after the sacrament he said "Im gonna take advantage of this opportunity I have to have you in my house and were going to have some instruction". Yes please! Haha that family is the best. After we literally just sat in our beds talking for 6 hours until we broke our fast. Man we are pretty bored! President has even been sending out homework assignments for us to do while we are waiting. He is the best.

But dont even worry about me, there are already a lot of people here worried about us. Our leaders and bishops and ward mission leaders and RS presidents are calling on us and checking up on us and bringing us food and whatever we need. And obviously the Chases are on top of it. Its actually pretty funny, we have a conversation with our district leader every couple hours and it goes like this "okay how are you guys? okay great were good too. so what have you guys been up to? what else have you cooked in the last few hours?" All these poor elders are enjoying this time and learning how to cook!

But I am good. Im sure you guys know more or less whats going on or can figure it out from the news. Just hearing from our leaders all that has been going on makes me a little sick. This country really needs the gospel! Really bad!

Apart from all of that, everything is super as far as missionary woork. Lots of investigators. The Ilumina el Mundo campaign in central america is incredible, we had planned an FHE in members houses (them inviting their nonmember friends) for every day leading up until Christmas. And our ward in general is incredible. I need to have a big catch up email next week, if we can leave! Also as a warning we might be changing our Pday back to monday because the Baldens are taking on most of the work.

Love you guys a lot! It was a great birthday and a great 9 MONTHS!!!!! Wow I am old. Thanks for the birthday presents, christmas, praying for me, everything. Just let everyone know Im okay but to pray a lot for this country.

37: Discernimiento

Not much to write this week, no pictures either :( but buying a new camera today!

We were going to have the baptisms of the familia Tercero this week but we decided they needed more time to prepare. Dennis, the dad, and Mauro, the son, are ready to get baptized but we want them all to be baptized as a family. Hoping for the next week! Keep them in your prayers! We met with them a few times this week and are focusing on the importance of the Restoration and the prophet Joseph Smith. We watched the movie The Restoration with them and challenged them with all that we could to pray about him and his role as a prophet. That part is so critical to understanding our message, if they dont do it, they will never receive a witness.

A while ago we got a GOLDEN reference. A member from San Pedro called us and said she has some friends that live in our area and they are a part member family. They are interested in going to church again, and already have every single book and pamphlet the church has to offer. We ran to their house and our lessons we had with them were INCREDIBLE, but yesterday we got a message from one of them, her name is Mayte, saying that her dad doesnt want them to keep listening to us :( I think my heart broke. It is the worst! We are going to try to keep visiting them and talk with their dad.

Tiffani and Alison are always excited to see us and go to church. They went for the first time this week and loved young womens :) Tiffani is progressing a little bit faster than Alison, so we are thinking she might be baptized before her cousin Alison, but the two are both progressing and want to make this change in their lives. Their baptism date is for this next week, so we are praying they will be ready by then.

Adalid KILLS ME. He is reading the Book of Mormon like crazy, and the last time we went to see him he had memorized the whole story of Nephi and his brothers obtaining the plates of brass. He told us all about it with a big smile on his face, and we were dying. I love him so much! He is a true convert.

I have been focusing my studies this week on the gift of discernment. I want to have the ability to discern when people are ready to accept this gospel, where they live and how we can find them. That has made me trust even more in the promise that there are ALWAYS people to teach and receive this gospel, and that the Spirit will guide us to them according to our faith and obedience. It has also made me realize the importance of finding new people to teach EVERY day. 

Hermana Gonzalez and I are best friends :) I am so lucky to have companions who are obedient and love this work more than anything. Makes every day DIVERTIDISIMO!

Hasta El Fin.

38: Que Pasa Calabaza

This week started with welcoming the Baldens to Honduras! They are from Utah and are here to be mission nurses / help in the office. We spent saturday afternoon with them taking them to Price Mart, grocery stores, helping them get situated.

We were pretty nervous this Saturday because after helping the Baldens we didnt have much time to visit our investigators before church, and few of those we tried to visit were home. But a lot of prayers and faith later we had...12 investigators in church!!!!!

That we could count, there were still a few people we didnt recognize and didnt have time to talk to that showed up for the primary presentation. But all twelve that were our investigators were brought there by members. This ward is the BEST.

The Familia Tercero is still waiting for their answers. They want to get baptized and keep going to church, but we want to make sure they are doing it because they knbow it is the only true church of Jesus Christ on the earth. Long story short, we thinbk they just need to read the Book of Mormon every day without fail. They have been reading and praying about it, but not with the dilligence we want them to. They are so close! They want to follow their son Dennis and be a family united in one faith, they just need to understand what is different about our message.

We finally got to teach the family of Dinora, a member who has brought her sister and two nieces to church for about a month. This family is in the process of moving and has distanced themselves from their church, so we are hoping this is their moment to accept the gospel. We had a beatiful experience with them this week, we showed up not knowing they had a big fight right before. we started to sing "Love at Home", said the prayer, and the mom and older saughter were crying. We continued with the lesson, trying not to probe too much, but at the end the mom offered the prayer and started sobbing. We sat in silence for a minute and the mom thanked us for what we shared because it comforted her to know things would all turn out okay in their family. 

There are never coincidences in this work.

The other day we were contacting in La Fraternidad and met Catalina, who was practically waiting for us. Her husband died not too long ago, she has distanced herself from churches, but has felt the desire to be baptized. She accepted a baptism date and the church our very first visit!

And to celebrate thanksgiving we bought cookies and my favorite baleadas - tortilla, beans, mantequilla, cheese, eggs, and fried plantain. And to make the day even better we bought ingredients to make pumpkin cookies and surprised Marcial, a less active, with a cookie making fiesta and a message about Thanksgiving :)

I love Girasoles and I love this work! I know this is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and I couldnt be more grateful for it. There is no greater joy, and no greater motivation for me to knock down every single door in Honduras. 

1. Zapote, a fruit here

2. The Baldens! We helped them eat their first baleada in Baleadas Kennedy.

3. We took some Zona Tegucigalpa christmas pictures and all dressed up in our christmas gear

4. Baleada Express feast. Happy Thanksgiving!

5-8. Making pumpkin cookies with Marcial 

9. Where you can find us always at 6:00 AM :)

10. And Friday mornings - studying while we wait for our laundry in the house of Hna Elwin. Her cats love to read with us too.

36: Pon Tu Hombro A La Lid, ADALID

This past Saturday was the baptism of Adalid! It was a perfect day, he got to the chapel an hour early with his family and was more than prepared. We had the service, a cake for his birthday, and a ton of members come! We even sang the hymn "Pon to hombro a la lid" because when we visited him a few nights before the bishop said it was his hymn because it sounds like his name. The next day he was confirmed in church and bore his testimony in front of everyone. This man has my heart, he was truly prepared and chosen for this moment.

We are still teaching the family of our ward mission leader, la familia Tercero, and the mom, dad, and son have baptism dates for next week! The parents keep saying "we feel this desire to follow our son, because he is so faithful and committed to his faith". They are incredible, we are hoping everything goes well so that their son Dennis can baptize them this next weekend.

Tiffany and Alison are some of the students from where we taught english classes. They are prepared, they have been searching for a church to join for some time, and they truly have real intent. We have focused so much in the book of mormon and mighty prayer and that has helped them understand why this gospel is different and so important. They both have baptism dates for the 25th.

Jaycee is facing opposition, opposition is the worst! Some of her family members are saying bad things about the church and discouraging her from being baptized. This week I made her a specific promise, that if she would prepare herself to for church thi week by praying in faith and reading the book of mormon every day that she would feel the confirmation that this is the correct path for her, no matter what her family says. Right now she has a baptism date for the 25.

Especially these past few weeks Hermana Wengert and I put a lot of emphasis on not having fears and being BOLD. Bold contacting, bold teachings, bold invitations, bold promises. I studied about fear a lot this week and I have come to the conclusion that this is the most fearless I have been in my whole life. Its almost a challenge for me now, if theres a bolder, faster, more fearless way to do something, I do it. Nothing can stop me!

We had changes this week and Hermana Wengert went to Graneros in Choluteca :( I love that sister so much. We changed each other, and I am a different missionary and person because of her. After we had our final medical presentation this monday we said our goodbyes and traded companions. She is in good hands though, she is with my MOM HERMANA ORDOÑEZ!

And my new companion is Hermana Gonzalez from Las Vegas! She is an awesome missionary and so so sweet. I am very excited for these next few changes.

Hasta el fin.

1-7. Adalids baptism
8-11. The last time the being more-or less helpful in the Chases house this Saturday
12. Adalids registro!
13-14. Our office, the last time for Hermana Wengert!
15-16. See you soon mi amiga!
17. The photo I got from Graneros, Porvenir this week :')