22: No Tenemos Razon Para Regocijarnos?

I AM SO HAPPY!!!!!!!

We are going to have a wedding AND baptismal service this 11th and 12th of August!!!!!!

After weeks of not seeing Gustavo and Dunia, we met with them again and they are getting their papers ready to be married NEXT WEEK! And one of the members here is paying for everything. This truly is a miracle. The first time we met with them, they said they might never get married, then it was "maybe", then "maybe next year", then "maybe this year", and now they are getting married in just 2 weeks! At first they wanted a big wedding with a dress and fiesta, but now they know what is really important: the baptism. We might not celebrate with more than a small cake, but there will surely be a fiesta in the heavens.

We also have had an interesting time with some investigators named Adriana, Patricia, Jefferson, and Josue. We found Adriana in her yard raking and asked if we could help, and later started to teach her. She doesnt understand hardly anything, so we started teaching her daughter, Patricia. She doesnt want to join us to go to church, so she sent her twin grandkids Jefferson and Josue to go with us. And without even teaching them, they started asking about being baptized in the church. They are still young but me and Hermana Cabañas both feel like they are ready for baptism, interesting chain of events in order to find those who are truly prepared. And we might have FOUR baptisms this 12th of August!

It is truly unbelievable what all is happening. I have been so frustrated working here and not seeing much happen. We went to our district meeting this friday and reviewed our goals for this past month- every companionship but us had 4 or 5 baptisms in the month of July. We were talking about what we can change in Yusguare to see the same success. Our district leader Elder Judd shared the scripture in Ether which talks about not seeing a witness until after the trial of your faith. Everyone in our district was just testifying to us that we are doing exactly what were supposed to be doing, and the Lord will bless us for our efforts. I got pretty teary, and decided I would fast the next day to see this witness.

God is aware.

He sees our efforts.

He blesses us if our desires our righteous.

I fasted all saturday, the day Gustavo and Dunia told us they would get everything ready to be married in two weeks, and the day Patricia told us she would send her grandkids to church with us.

I feel like Ammon in the Book of Mormon in Alma 26, after all that weve been through, all this work, have I not reason to rejoice?

I have!

The song by David Archuleta, Glorious, that plays at the end of the movie Meet the Mormons comes to mind every time I see the Lords hand like this. This gospel is glorious, the Book of Mormon is glorious, eternal families are glorious, the Savior is glorious.

1. Just what you all were wondering, "what is Hermana Morgan eating out there in wild wild Cholutexas???" This is a typical dinner, tortillas, cuajada (cheese), avocado, beans, fried plantains with mantequilla, and a fried egg. Prepared by one of our favorite members Ana Gabriel.
2. This week is the town fair in Yusguare! One day I will return and actually participate, but for now I will just buy street popcorn to eat for dinner.
3. These are nance, a fruit that grows everywhere here. We have 2 nance trees in our yard, along with a tamarind tree and a lime tree.
4. We have Noche de Cine every week now where we invite investigators, members, everyone to watch a church-related movie. Th cotton candy we bought from the fair, but the popcorn we make ourselves. After 5 weeks I am now a pro-popcorn popper!
5. Jefferson, Josue, and me after church :)
6. Making baleadas last night with the Portillo family! If it looks like Im crying, its because I am actually crying. The smoke from cooking tortillas is horrible, but worth it!
7. Cant make tortillas to save my life but I can pose and pretend like I did more than just watch and cry in the smoke.
8. Baleadas! They consist of a flour tortilla, beans, dry cheese, and mantequilla. This is the most famous, and most typical food from Honduras. And most delicious!
9. This morning trying on all of my clothes. This whole time I havent worn any of the proseltying pants I brought, and now they are all falling off me. We walk...a lot!

Hasta El Fin.

21: Buscad a Jehová

This week we met new people, dropped others, and....met with the familia Mejia again!! I was so happy to see them, they havent been to church in a long time because their son has been sick and homebound, but yesterday they told us they are ready to get married, so hoping I get to see that and their baptisms in my time here.

We had an interesting experience with an investigator named Isis. She is such a great person, she receives us, gives us food, turns on the air conditioning, we are like her friends. She has family members who are members of the church so we thought she could really be a golden investigator. We had a few lessons and she understood everything, but just yesterday we watched parts of The Restoration with her and she told us "this is great and I love having you guys over, but Im happy in my church and I dont want to change with way I worship". And we were really sad. What did we do wrong? Did we not testify loud enough? Were our scriptures not clear enough? No. We do everything we can, we pray as hard as we can, but Isis never had the real intent that Moroni talks about in the end of the Book Of Mormon. We did our part, and are sad that she doesnt want to receive the gospel, but she needed to have the desire to change.

I gave a talk this week in church about that, having a desire, and the importance of the Book of Mormon. So many people say "Im waiting for the Lord to give me the desire, or inspire me to go to church again". That drives me insane. We search our own desire, the Lord does not tell us, "you can follow me next week or maybe next year". NO! We search him now! We feel the desire to come to know our Savior Jesus Christ, and we act. We got to church. We read the Book of Mormon. We pray. We repent.

The end of this change is in just 3 weeks, and I will be so sad if I have to leave this zone. It has been a challenge, but I love the people, the area, the other missionaries, the members, everything. But, Ill go where you want me to go dear Lord!

20: Vale La Peña

This week was sooooooooooooooo good! I got a lot of emails of support from you all today, and I dont have time to respond to all, but thank you so much :) I can feel all your prayers for me. Thank you for love for me, and your love for the Lord.

As we dropped a lot of people last week, this week we had 19 new investigators, a new record! Were doing a lot of things to change how we teach and contact people. Everyone here accepts us into their house, but not everyone is ready to open their hearts up to us, so we are praying a lot for better discernment, and are firm in explaining our purpose with every new person. We have already seen a lot of progress, just waiting to see the results!

Instead of our usual district meeting this week, we met all as a zone to figure out what we can do to see success here in Zona Choluteca. We collaborated all together to set new goals and share ideas of how we can be more united in our purpose. We ended all on our knees in prayer, and you could just feel the Spirit so strong. Prayer is powerful. We are powerful. The Lord is powerful. We are all fasting this thursday to see our goals come to pass.

Yesterday in sunday school we had a workshop with all the adult members about helping us in our efforts here. We talked about the importance of being a member-missionary, and that with or without a plaque we have the responsability to share the gospel with the whole world. We challenged each of them to give us a reference by next sunday, and were just praying they all follow through. 

I also want to make this invitation to all of you who are members of the church. Now that Im a missionary, I wish I was better about helping the missionaries in my ward before I left. The missionaries in your wards come from all over the world, they dont understand how everything works in your area. And you all, as the people who live there and know everyone, know where to find the people ready to accept the gospel. GIVE REFERENCES TO THE MISSIONARIES!!!! HELP THEM FIND THOSE CHOSEN PEOPLE!!! GO WITH THEM TO VISIT PEOPLE AND HELP THEM BRING INVESTIGATORS TO CHURCH!!!!!

I promise they will love you so much. And it will make me very happy.

Another thing I have focused on this week is studying specifically for every investigator. We sometimes get in the routine here of reading the Book of Mormon, New Testament, and Preach my Gospel, and we learn a lot, but we arent showing and acting upon our faith. After refoucsing my studies this week, I am a new missionary! But the same is true for all of you. If we search in the scriptures, pray, or fast specifically, God will illuminate our minds and answer our questions.

Today we climbed a mountain!!! Best Pday ever. Its called La Peña, in San Marcos, its a long hike but the view "vale la pena" :) 

1. Dont need to go back to MO Ive already found New Jerusalem.

2. Enchiladas for dinner on Mariels birthday! (Hna C, Ariana, Me, Mariel)

3. Ya queremos pastel

4. Offering service to less actives, my first time making tortillas! Por fin!!! And not a single one of them turned out right!

5. On the hike up to the top of the Peña

6. Hna Fifita, me, Elder Alvarado

7. Dont look Mom!

8. POR FIN!!!!! The best ice cream central america has to offer.

9. Before zone conference last week, in front of our house

10. Me and Hna C :)

11. The bus to San Marcos, squished and hanging out the sides just like every bus in Honduras!

12. VALE LA PEÑA!

19: Una Semana

Buenas tardes!

This week has been... a week. Good, bad, happy, sad, everything.

We finally got to meet President Chase and his wife! We had a Zone Conference with all the zones from the south this past Friday. They are a lot different from President and Hermana Bowler, but just as great! They took some time intoducing themselves, and put together a video to introduce everyone in their family. We love them and are so excited to work eith them here in La Mision Honduras Tegucigalpa!

We have 0 progressing investigators rght now. Last week, I said that we had to drop Belki and the Mejia family. And this week, Ramon and Kareli both dropped US. Our two investigators that were the most positive. We had a lot of faith in the both of them, but they both encountered some opposition, and decided they didnt want to hear from us anymore :( So we are searching and searching to find new people, personas preparadas y eligidas. We dont know where they are, but we are going to find them.

After Zone Conference, we had exchanges with the sister training leaders, and I think I came out a new missionary! It is always good to have those experiences, because as missionaries we learn so much from one another. Hermana Realivasquez helped me come up with some ideas of how we can find those chosen people in our area, and help them come unto Christ. It was a great way to end the week, and lift my spirits after some heartbreak.

That all has been on my mind this week. How I can change, what I can do to se success in this area. We work hard and we walk and talk to everyone, but since January this area has only had one baptism. On the surface it looks like we have done hardly anything here. But I realized, I have seen other fruits of my labors. We work a lot with less actives, and just hese past few weeks I have seen a number of them come to church. Members that I helped become re-converted. to come unto Christ again. I sat at the piano during the sacrament this sunday thinking about that, and felt so much peace I started to weep. One day I will see a baptism, but everything is in the Lords hands and with His timing. He sees my efforts. Im not perfect, but I can work harder every day to give Him my all.

1. How a sister missionary in Honduras dresses for the Fourth of July

2. How a sister missionary in Honduras eats lunch on the Fourth of July (the only restaurant we have in Yusguare, Chicken Crumch, and elotyl from the pulperia of a member)

3-4. Spent some time decorating my room and study area, not too far from home and family even here in Honduras!

Hasta El Fin.

18: Cuatro Meses

A normal P Day today :( I wish we could go to the temple every week. I would keep waking up at 1 in the morning just to do it!

This week we dropped Belki AND the Mejía family :( I was pretty sad because they were our most positive investigators from my time with Hermana Ordoñez. We were certain that Belki would continue to progress and get baptized, but she hasnt been to church or followed through with our commitments in a while. Ane the Mejía family just isnt ready, they also stopped going to church a few weeks ago, and they dont want to get married right now, so we cant do much to help them. sad, but each person we meet has a different time table.

Ramon, who I think I mentioned last week, is AWESOME! I really think he is a golden investigator. He just wants to feel peace, which he has since we started to teach him. He accepts everything, and every time we ask him a question, he always responds with something about the celestial kingdom. Like the other day in Gospel Principles we asked him why it is important to listen to the prophets, he responded "so we know what we need to do to get to the celestial kingdom" :) and he gives us a bag of fresh popped popcorn every time we go to his house. GOLD.

We started teaching a woman named Kareli, and she is also progressing really fast. We took her to the church to watch The Restoration and she was really touched. Yesterday we went to teach her and she said she had an interesting dream (just as a sidenote, when people say they have dreams we dont always take the dreams seriously becuase there are a lot of interesting ideas about religion here). But she said in the dream she was in a similar position like Joseph Smith, surrounded by lots of churches and confused, searching for answers. She said she really was going to pray and read to receive her answers, so im really excited to see where it all goes!

And this week I celebrated 4 months! 14 more to go! 

1. 4 months!!!!!

2. Plans so far for the fourth of July. Maybe the people wont celebrate but my agenda will!

3. Las hermanas de Zona Choluteca siempre van a la comida mexicana