47: Santidad Al Señor - La Casa Del Señor

This week we went to the temple! That and the calling of President Nelson were the big highlights of the week, we were all together as a zone a lot! Tuesday we got to meet all together in the stake center and watch the announcement of the new prophet and the press conference after. Then two days later we had our district meeting, lunch, session in the temple, and dinner all together. Then the next day we all had interviews with president. Lots of zone bonding!

The temple was just as beautiful as ever. Since we only enter once every 6 months I try to take time to prepare myself the week before and have a list of questions ready for answers. It was a beautiful experience, lots of sweet moments with Hermana Gonzalez. I encourage you all to go to the temple, we live for it as missionaries, we would go every day if we could! If you are worthy, go. If not, make yourself worthy.

All of the missionaries were dissecting what President Nelson was saying word for word, I can't write them all but we have a lot of thoughts about his message and a lot of love and support for him. He is a true prophet of God! My testimony of prophets has grown incredibly in my time here. Being able to explain to investigators and members this week about President Nelson has been interesting and a blessing to many testimonies. God calls new prophets but his gospel and his church never changes.

We are always dropping and finding new investigators but Esteband and Veronica are a constant. We are still in the process of arranging their papers to get married, but they will 100% get baptized as soon as they get married. They are some of my favorite people, I am not teaching them but rather God is teaching me through them about how powerful he is and his will is. 

I thought I would comment about another investigator we have had for a few weeks, I'll call him José. He is reading the Book of Mormon a lot but is not getting to the conclusion that we would like him to. He has studied lots of religions, and identifies himself as a mix between Christian and Jewish. He has a hard time accepting concepts from the Book of Mormon because he believes God could not have worked in that manner. The important thing he is missing is a spirit of prayer, he has not had the desire to kneel down and ask God if this is true, he says he likes to spend more time studying and reflecting. He reminds me a lot of the scripture in 2 Nephi 32:8-9, only the devil teaches us not to pray! We cant let him do that! We can read the whole Book of Mormon for curiosity and never gain a testimony because we dont have the humility to kneel and pray.

The Tercero family is doing great! They love us and we love them. I made the bishop promise me that they will go to the temple exactly one year from now to be sealed. I cant wait for that day!

1-2: From last Pday, Tegucigalpa or Paris?

3. 11 months late...but I made a plan of salvation!

4. Gelateando

5-12. El templo

13. ZONA TEGUCIGALPA

14-15. Church time play time

46: It's a Great Day to be a Missionary

Dennis, Maira, and Mauro Tercero were all baptized by their son/brother Dennis Jr. on Saturday! I am so happy. I have been waiting for this since September when Dennis told us he felt the impression to invite his family to church. He was baptized four years ago and his family had never been receptive to the church, they had been taught by almost all missionaries in those four years without much progression, but this time it worked! And I am so grateful I got ot be a part of it.

We werent completely sure if they were going to be able to get baptized because the last time we asked them about Joseph Smith and this being the only true church, they were unsure, but Thursday night when we visited them with the bishop they testified to us that they were ready. The difference had been the Book of Mormon, before they were reading it but not dilligently, every day. But two weeks ago we promised them that as they would read the book every day they would cultivate faith sufficient to believe in this gospel. And it worked! Maira still talks about how when we read with her a scripture in Alma 5:40 that talks about all good things coming from God. That was her answer, she knew what we were inviting her was an excellent thing, so she knew God was speaking to her.

Yesterday watching them get confirmed by their son Dennis it hit me hard what was happening for them eternally this weekend. They are going to have what I have! They are going to be together forever! That scripture is true, when we bring one soul unto God our joy is great, and even greater with three souls, and even GREATER when a year from now that whole family will enter into the temple to be sealed for time and all eternity. This gospel is incredible!

Apart from that we are still working with a few other members of that family, there are a couple that we have as investigators and will likely be baptized soon as well.

Esteban and Veronica really have "sung the song of love that redeemeth". I still cant describe what joy we feel every time we talk with them. Veronica was telling us the other day that the first time we met with the both of them was January 1st, and she said she has been a new person from day one of 2018, leading into the rest of her life. Esteban practically teaches along with us, and every time someone amongst all of us ends up in tears because of the spirit we feel with them. Their situation is still complicated because they have to arrange a few things and get married, but I know for sure they will do it. And if they were already marrried, we would have had a double family baptism this past weekend.

I told Hermana Gonzalez yesterday that the Lord has blessed us immensly in the past few weeks, lots of little miracles and blessings every day. The Lord sees our efforts and blesses us in his own way.

Este evangelio dirige toda mi vida. Estoy tan agradecida por tenerlo desde niña y por tener mi familia para siempre. Yo soy testigo del poder de Dios, él ya tiene su voluntad puesta para cada uno de nosotros y solo depende en nuestro uso del albedrío. Lo quiero servir con todo mi corazón, alma, mente, y fuerza, con la mira puesta únicamente en su gloria. El nos ama y su hijo vive!

1. Hermana Dilcia 

2. Rosangel

3. Mauro

4. Making no bake cookies for the baptism

5-8. The baptism

9. La Santa Margarita & La Modesto 

10-11. After their confirmations

12. Las chicas superpoderosas

13. Late thanksgiving...we found mashed potato mix and gravy mix in the house

14-15.  Dinner with the Baca family

45: Una Fe Fuerte y Una Mente Firme en Toda Forma de Santidad

That has been my theme for the week after I read it in Moroni 7:30, a strong faith and a firm mind in all forms of holiness. What beatiful attributes to aspire! Since our last zone conference our studies have been focused heavily on faith, and I know that instruction was inspired specifically for me when President Chase instructed us to learn about faith. There is nothing more I want to be a misisonary with a strong faith and a firm mind in all things of holiness!

Yesteerday and the day before Hermana Gonzalez and I said they were some of the happiest days on our mission, finding people to teach, members offering to help us, investigators and less active in church. We had the Tercero family in church, Esteban and his wife Veronica, and a man show up just for curiosity. And we were able to announce ths baptisms of the Tercero family for this Saturday evening. Lots of blessings!

Lots of new things as far as the mission and the church this week, soon-to-be new prophet, the new 3rd hour program for Sundays, and a program we are using as a mission called 5 Priority Families: the 5 families are less active families or families that are progressing toward another ordenance in the gospel that we teach 2-3 times a week and treat like investigators so that they can progress toward their next ordenance, and the 3rd hour council with Relief Society was really interesting and helpful for all members of the ward. The focus for our council was a greater assistance in the temple with it being so close.

Not much to say about the Tercero family, just that we have a lot of faith and they have a lot of faith taking this step. Hoping  for the best this week!

I still cant describe the story of Esteban and his wife Veronica completely doing it justice. They are the biggest miracle I have seen. So prepared. They are to be preparing papers this week to be married the 26th, and baptized the 27th. I am so grateful for beiong able to play a role in their conversion process, just thinking about htem increases my faith.

We have two really interesting investigators, Marcos and Reniere, who ask a lot of deep questions about the gospel. It has been interesting to see how the Spirit works through us and them to help them understand the principles of the gospel that they are missing. Most of the time, we have to avoid answering some of their far out questions and redirect them bacdk to the Book of Mormon to receive their answers. With the both of them we have focused on the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants that says "seek learning by study and also by faith", because it is important to study to find answers but just as important to have faith.

A couple of times this week Hermana Gonzalez and I have listened to the song Glorious from Meet the Mormons, we have it both in English and in Spanish. Every time I hear it it makes me think of how glorious this experience has been for me and how glorious the gospel of Jesus Christ is for me and my family. I love it so much! Nothing is more important to me. Christ lives! His gospel and his church are restored. He taught us how to live perfect lives, and as we love him with all our heart might might and strength, acting in faith and using his grace, we can become like him. Glorioso es!

No pictures this week...sorry! Next week.

Hasta El Fin.

44: Otro Año Ha Pasado

Otro año más queda ya atrás! I cant believe it. And I finishede 10 months this week, I am getting older and older in the mission every day.

This past week we had our CHRISTMAS PARTY!!!! With the whole mission! It was insane. With all that has been going on in the country we havent had changes or celebrated Christmas for weeks but we decided to just do it all in one day and bring the whole mission to the biggest chapel in Tegucigalpa, one thats 3 stories in Uyuca. It was so fun! Having all of our best friends all together celebrating Christmas brings an incredible spirit. The only sad part is we had to turn our daughter Hermana Garcia over to her real mom in La Guaymuras.  It was a fun week of motherhood though.

We also had our zone conference on Friday. President Chase focused on FAITH, and challenged us to focus our studies this next week on faith. His son also gave a workshop and talked about ETERNAL LIFE, how that is our personal goal and the goal for every person we meet here. And our zone leaders talked about OBEDIENCE. All topics I love and was grateful for their counsel.

We watched Meet the Mormons with the Tercero Family and they are still a little bit stuck on the question if this is the only true church. We made them a promis that if they would read the Book of Mormon faithfully every day they would be prepared to be baptized next weekend. we are hoping they make the effort, because there isnt much we can do to help them if they dont search ask ask for themselves. Please lots of prayers for them, they are so close and we love them very much.

We had our first real lesson with Esteban this week and he is a miracle, without doubt. We started to teach lesson 1 and it seemed like he was teaching us, so we pulled out the baptismal interview questions and he answered to every single one of them. Insane! The only thing is he has to get married, and when he mentioined that it sounded like his wife wouldnt be interested in that idea. We were really worried, but we showed up at their house yesterday to discuss it with the two of them and his wife Veronica wants to be baptized too! They have a wedding date for the 26th and a baptismal date for the 27th.

I cant really describe their whole story because there are so many details that leave me in awe. I just know that God prepares people and puts them in our path. Only if we are faithful and dilligent can we find them. This experience has been more than inspiring for me.

Happy New Year!

Links:
1. Nos hicimos super fitness y nos compramos cuerda de salto y bungee, seamos nuevas misioneras este año!
2-3. Christmas Party
4. Christmas party
5. Hermana Ordoñez and her two daughters  my mom leaves this change!
6-10. Christmas party
11-12. Valle de Angeles this morning

:)

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