28: ¡Levántate!

​It has been a week! As a nurse and a missionary it has been a rollercoaster. Hospital visits, divisions, conferences, office time, baptismal interviews, new investigators, priesthood blessings, everything.

This week we had 3 investigators in church: Eric, Cesar, and Jorge.

Jorge: Is, interesting! He is an old man who has a few problems with the word of wisdom. All the members have told us that he has been to church with missionaries a lot of times already, but well see how we can help him.

Cesar: Smoked only SIX cigarettes the other day!!! That is progress!!!!! I was so happy when he said that I didnt have words. The other night he got a blessing from a few members in the ward and Im so excited to see him tonight. He is the sweetest old man. We are hoping he is clean to be baptized this next week.

Eric: Here is the roller coaster part. His baptismal date was today, so we have been seeing him almost every day. Last Saturday we went with the Bishop to see him and give him a blessing. He came to church, then we couldnt visit him until Tuesday. That night we were in divisions, so Hermana Wengert and Hermana Ordoñez went to visit him that night. That day he drank coffee and he had been having a lot of doubts about baptism and his past sins. so he told them he didnt want to be baptized anymore. They left him Alma 36 to read before we would visit him the next day. Wednesday we arrived and talked about the chapter, amd he said Alma 36:8 spoke to him, which says - 

"But behold, the voice said unto me: Arise. And I arose and stood up, and beheld the angel"

He then started to cry, and told us he was ready to be baptized, and that he had repented of all his sins. In that moment I could see him truly experiencing the power of the atonement and I started to cry. This night was probably the happiest of my mission - it says in the introduction of PMG that this work brings no greater happiness, and its true! We left 2 Nefi 9 for him to read about the atonement, and talked about that and went over the baptismal interview questions with him the next day. That same day, Thursday, our ward mission leader gave him another blessing. Friday, yesterday was his interview, so we arrived with Elder Lapicola and Elder Roskos and the first thing Eric said was "I decided I dont want to be baptized, Im too scared of failing and sinning after". I just wanted to cry, again! We sat there sharing scriptures, sharing testimonies, and Eric kept saying "I dont know if I can do it, it just seems too hard", and I explained to him that Christ passed through everything, and he wanted to give up, but he said "not my will, but thine be done". After a while, Elder Roskos asked him if he would like a blessing, and Eric kept denying it, but after some silence Eric started to cry and agreed. As soon as the blessing started I started to sob, I couldnt picture losing Eric after how much he has changed and repented. Two seconds after the blessing, Eric said "what time do I have to be at the chapel tomorrow?"

WHAT

I wiped my tears and could barely talk. After that he had his interview, and we decided it would be best to wait until next week to have his baptism after so much back and forth this week. But he has repented, and is ready!

That has been the biggest thing I learned this week, the atonement is so powerful, and once we start to experience it we understand just how great and merciful our God is. Nothing brings more joy.

And pictures! Stolen from Hna Wengert :)
1-3. Last Pday making brownies with Cathryn, the daughter of President and Hermana Chase
4-6 Divisions! I was with Hna Nuñez but I had to take some pictures with my mamá Hna Ordoñez
7 Hermana Beltran from my group :)
8 Lunch after Zone conference with all the zones in the city and oriente
9-10 More after conference
11 Hna Morgan in action :) prelude for leadership council

27: Yo Os Mostraré Un Dios De Milagros

Our God is a God of miracles. Moroni knew it when he wrote that scripture in Mormon 9:11, and I can also testify of it this week in Girasoles.

We thought we might have a less-busy week away from Enfermera stuff, but no! We should have counted how many hours we spent on the phone with doctors, with leaders, in and out of the hospital. We even had some hermanas come from the South to get some tests done, so they stayed with us 3 nights.

But with all of that, it is truly unbelievable that we have investigators progressing, going to church, and preparing for baptism! This week we had 4 investigators in church!!!!!!! Wooooooo!!!!!

Cesar: Still the sweetest old man. We found out this week that he has troubles smoking, so we are trying to help him come over that. He is really motivated, and we hope he is baptized the 23rd. 

Alexis: An investigator that Hermana Wengert and Hermana Gomez visited a few times while he was smoking a lot, but dropped. We passed by his house the other day and he has almost completely stopped smoking! He is always talking about how he wants to go the the US to work, so we are almost using that as his motivation like "if you stop smoking and repent and keep the commandments God will bless you with work!!!" haha.

Eric: Ah I love Eric! He has truly changed. He read the whole Book of Mormon and is now preparing to be baptized the 16th! His trouble is that he always talks about devils distracting him...so we promised him that with this gospel and with this covenant that hes about to make he can overcome these worries. Were planning on giving him a bunch of pictures of Christ to hang up in his room so his focus is always on Him.

One thing I loved from this week is a lesson we had with Eric and a few members. Hermana Wengert and I are trying to do more dynamic lessons, so we made baleadas to represent the gospel of Jesus Christ! Faith = tortilla, beans = repentance, baptism = mantequilla, the gift of the holy ghost = queso seco, enduring to the end = continuing to eat baleadas, because we will continue to be hungry for the rest of our lives. It is PERFECT, because you CANT make a baleada without any of these ingredients - it wont be the same. Ands these baleadas are what we call "sencillas", or simple, and the gospel is simple!

And about the miracles. My favorite from this week - the other day we were searching through the area book and pulled out a few names, one of them being Karen. A few days later we were contacting a not-so-random house and taught someone named Karen as well. I thought I recognized her name, so I pulled out those papers out of my backpack and there was her name. On the back it said "find her and baptize her! She couldnt be baptized before because she had troubles with her work, but she is golden". She accepted a date for the 23rd in that lesson :)

These things happen every day for us. It makes me want to cry every time. The Lord understands our desires and our circumstances and not only blesses us but gives us miracles! We were in a trio that day with Hermana Fifita, and all three of us were just awed after the lesson. If you want to see a God of miracles, ask a missionary and they will show you.

Still no camera, still no pictures!

Hasta el Fin.

26: Por Bendiciones Que Me Da, A Él Daré Loor

That has been our theme song for this week, practically since Saturday afternoon we have been slammed with mission nurse work; in the office, going to doctors appointments, in the Chases house helping Hermana Chase. I forgot to say, like every mission has assistants to the president, we are basically the assistants to the mission presidents wife. Its a lot of work, but we love it and we LOVE Hermana Chase :)

This Sunday was the Tegucigalpa Stake conference. We ended up having a few emergencies and stayed the night with President and Hermana Chase, and werent able to visit and remind investigators about church the next day. We showed up to the conference and had NO investigators. We were so frustrated and discouraged in the moment, but used that to fuel weekly planning after church. But the best part is - the next day we got to the office and Elder Cherry and Elder Cuevas tell us that one of our investigators walked all the way to their building because he was confused about where to go to church. WHAT?! That doesnt happen!!!!

His name is Cesar, I dont know if Ive mentioned him before, but we sware he is a golden investigator. He is about 50 years old, very humble, and takes everything we say to heart. He is reading, praying, always ready and dressed up every time we want to take him to a members house, he is our favorite :) He has a baptism date for the 16th!

Our other investigator who is really progressing is named Eric, other missionaries have taught and dropped him, but this Sunday we saw him outside his house and he told us he FINISHED the Book of Mormon. Also something that nobody does as an investigator! With the lessons we had with him this week he really opened up about his worries about attending church, and we are truly hoping for the best for him. 

Something that has been hard, especially this week, is finding time to teach. With our assignment we have only been in our area a few hours at night, if were lucky, every day except yesterday. But the lessons we have in those hours make everything worth it. We find people who are truly prepared, were able to bring members who can testify exactly to the need of the investigator, we get investigators to commit and follow through with invitations. The Lord is aware and He is blessing the little time we have to bring more children unto Him. For that, we are always singing "por bendiciones que me da, a el dare loor" (from the spanish version of There is Sunshine in my Soul Today).

A funny enfermera story this week - we had a missionary who was very sick and needed to see a doctor, so we figured we would try out a new general doctor with Hermana Chase. This is Hermana Chases first week of driving here, so we truly had an adventure trying to track down this place as none of us knew where it was and there are no addresses or directions in Honduras. We ended up driving outside the mission for a while, but we made it! And it was almost a hole-in-the-wall clinic which we will never use again, there was even blood on the floor when we walked in, I wish I couldve taken a picture of this place. Lots of new experiences as an enfermera!

Speaking of pictures, lost my camera! Hopefully some pictures...soon!

Hasta El Fin.