Rapunzel de Morazan

and gift wrapped!

Martes: As a district we had a gift exchange in honor of Valentine´s day and my district leader gave me a rosary and said he would be offended if I didn't wear it. A little sacreligious but also a little funny. But yeah like mine and Calpa's gifts were the most thoughtful gifts and we even wrote little notes and got them gift wrapped and the elders were like wow they put a lot of time into this but truth be told we didn't even buy the gifts until that morning and our district meeting was at 10. I guess it goes to show why the elders serve for 2 years and the hermanas only serve for a year and half because we can get more done in less time haha.

We contacted this abuelito later and he was like yeah the Book of Mormon makes sense I think Jose Smith was called of God but he's like I can't commit to anything because ¨we in our church...¨ blah blah blah like everything in the ¨we¨ form. oh the lovely "sheep". People have such narrow perspective when they don't think for themselves. Some people can´t see past their front door.  But God wants us to search and to learn for ourselves. Search the prophets, "prove me now herewith". He wants us to come to our own conclusions, not survive off of regurgitations from others. 

Miércoles: Montón de estudios. Estamos preparando por nuestra reunión de doce semanas en viernes. I think we did like four modules of english trying to prepare my companion because even though she has been living with gringas for a year and a half, she really only knows how to say "shut up", and "your mom" hahaha. She's cute. But yeah all I ever want to do nowadays is to read the Book of Mormon. We're supposed to finish it by the 12 de marzo because that's when one of the 12 apostles of the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints is coming! And I just started like three weeks ago and I already finished the book of Alma and oh did I mention that I'm reading it in spanish, whaaaaat! 

Mom asked me a while ago if there's a market day and well today we actually went to this big market that for some reason I've never seen in this little town. And yeah it's every day and it's a whole bunch of people selling the exact same assortment of fruit and vegetables so that was kind of funny. And also people selling clothes that they hung way too low -like how am I supposed to walk here. Well my comp had no problem,  but she's five foot nothing. Shopping is so stressful here like there's always someone hovering asking what do you want? like I don't know yet! 

We helped this little 8 year old carry a bunch of firewood (leña) and we didn't know where she lived she was just like, I live over there because that's what everyone says (por allá!) But it turned out to be really far and it's just her and her mom living there and it was a ton of firewood idk how that little girl was expected to carry it all that far! Oh and get this they have fishies in their pila! And it's not gross or anything like their pila is super clean, they just caught fishes I guess and put the little suckers in there! 

Also we made macheteadas and the fire was really hot and the metal plate that they use to cook on is tore up so there were jets of flames coming up and around the pan and it was a pan of oil so we tried to make it level so we put a piece of wood under on one side of the pan to make it level but that caught on fire too. But it was fine in the end and the kids that we were cooking for liked it.

Jueves: We studied so much trying to get ready for our meeting on Friday. We were talking to Ashton and Mendieta on the phone and Calpa was saying that I almost fell where we were walking and Medieta said, that if I tripped right now I wouldn't fall until tomorrow #tallpeopleprobs. 

Our lesson with hermanita Y went well, she's really good with the reading but I call her Rapunzel because (1) She has reallllly long gorgeous hair, and (B) Her mom doesn't let her leave the house for anything, not even to go to church. 

We taught familia L and the mom actually joined us with her Book of Mormon in hand and didn't play with her phone once, I was so proud of her!

Viernes: So we ended up being like a half hour late to our meeting because when we transfered we got off 4 blocks early and had to walk. Later on our bus driver decided he wanted desayuno so we were stopped on the side of the road for a while. The meeting was fine, a lot of new goals in the mission, they're really whipping us into shape. I was all flustered from being late and stuff so I didn't perform super well so my comp wasn't as proud of me this time, awww. Afterwards we got to have lunch with one of my buddies from the CCM and his companion from Costa Rica (Calpa calls costa ricans the gringos of central america because they don't roll their r's) 

Sábado: We had our interviews with the president, but we told him that we had a baptism at 10 so really our interviews were like 5 minutes, he handed us a baked treat and pushed us out the door! But he did say that I could call anytime if I had problems so there's that. I didn't really mind the short interview, I'm happy, healthy, and worthy and I don't have any questions. Oh but we did talk a little bit about the new requirement that the missionaries do family history work. So I'm not sure where to start with that... The baptism was great afterwards though! One of the girls getting baptized waited 7 months to get permission from her parents and she was so excited to finally be able to! 

Domingo: We had 3 of our investigators come to church! Hopefully they can attend the next two sundays as well so that they can have enough asistencias to be baptized before my companion leaves! I went on splits with one of the members for the first time in my liiiife and it was so weird not being with my companion and having to lead the lesson. I'm still no good but hopefully I can improve. 

Sunday night Elders Ashton and Mendieta brought some of their investigators over to our investigator's house and we had a little noche de hogar but the house literally shared a wall with a church or something! and these people were yelling and crying to Jesus and singing/screaming but we still managed to have the spirit in our little lesson and I was like, what a difference ya know? the spirit is a still small voice, not a screeching voice haha so there ya go and it was great!

Lunes: The elders packed a picnic lunch and all six of us squeezed into a moto taxi and went to Pata Gallina! We played sand volleyball and had a picnic on the river bank. We initially said losers get to prepare all the sandwiches but obviously my team one but I ended up making all of the sandwiches anyway haha. 

But yeah everything is good here and I miss you all but not too much! 

I love this gospel and I love my calling and I love my God!

Morazan Corazon

I didn't have a Valentine this year but here in Morazan, I get told ¨I love you baby!¨ pretty much every day and yesterday this guy in the street was hollering ¨marry me gringa, yo quiero casarme contigo I love you! Gringa I love you!´.

So yeah I'm feeling the amor y amistad!

Lunes: We had a family home evening of sorts with fam R and we had another type of tamale whaaaaat I dont have my notebook with me this week so I can't tell you the name of them but it was made with maiz but this time it wasn't just masa, it had chicken in sauce in a stripe down the middle so it was kind of like the mexican tamales that I'm used to but they didnt feel like putting the chicken filling inside so it's just on top. 

We watched the Testaments movie with them when the whole family was finally all there. We didn't get to finish it because we have a super early curfew as missionaries (9:00 and in bed by 10:30!)

But this family is great because they've been taught by the elders for a while and one of the daughters got baptized last year, her brother has a baptismal date for later this month, and the youngest girl just finally got permission from her mom to get baptized! And we didn't know it when we started working family L, our investigators, but it turns out that the oldest daughter in the family that my companion and I are teaching is dating the oldest son in the family that the elders are teaching and both families are really good friends! So this could either be really good or really bad depending on if their faith is stronger than their relationship...

Martes: we traveled to Santa Rita to meet up with the rest of our zone. And this was our first meeting since transfers and we got a "baby"! He's fresh out of the ccm and I'm not gonna lie, I got a little bit of satisfaction, it's been a while since I've had to listen to someone with worse Spanish than mine! 

But my comp says that I've improved a lot. I just need to figure out how to understand Spanish that's not castellano... but I'm really glad that I don't get as frustrated as much as I used to. 

Afterwards we went to lunch with only half of our elders and we got fried fish and I've never eaten a fish that could look at me! Also I think it's funny that none of us even touched the silverware. My comp always says that she feels disconnected from her food when she uses a fork. I think I already said that before but she says it all the time so whatevaaah.

Miércoles: Woke up early to prepare one of the member's house for the activity that we were going to have in the evening. We swept their huge yard and half of the elders came to help. Well actually the elders showed up when we were sitting there with the Hermana with our teacups and cakes on the table but after they showed up we went to work! And when we were finished organizing everything and brought the chairs, the Hermano told us that he wanted to make the ground wet so that it wouldnt look so dusty? I left california when we were in a drought so I was like you want me to what?! But yeah we got our little buckets and started bringing water from the pila and throwing it on the dirt in their backyard and of course it ended in a water fight and I was absolutley soaked and cold. But the hermano thanked us and said that it looked much better now that all the ground was wet....

Later on my companion and I came back to help the hermana make pupusas! and this lady is like my honduran grandma I love her so much she was so supportive of my awkward pupusa making! And for those who, like past me, don't know what pupusas are, it's basically tortillas de maseca but there's quesillo inside and also this other stuff that I cant remember the name of... chicharron. It's like pork meat. We also made tacos mexican style with real salsa that was actually picante and I was in heaven! you never really appreciate mexican food until you live somewhere that doesn't have it. It's hard to imagine not having access to mexican food when you're from Bakersfield.  

So the activity that we had that night was really good and we played this game that involved questions from the gospel and throwing tied up balls of Elder Montiel's clothes that he left behind when he ended his mission in the bonfire.

Jueves: We helped this lady clean her house and I was sweeping and she asked my companion if I ever swept before since I'm from the United States. And I was like yes but we sweep differently so I'm always embarrassed to sweep infront of people here! They use every broom like a push broom and I don't... But it's really funny that none of the latinos think that gringos can do anything. Like people ask me if I can cook and I say sure! and then they ask me if I can make tortillas ¨no¨ tamales? ´tampoco´ entonces ella no puede cocinar! and Im just like well -frick- I guess you're right, you need to teach me! It's pretty funny. and even my companion told me that she used to think the same of norte Americanos. 

Also in case you guys were wondering about the housing market in morazan, if a house is for sale, they spray paint that information directly on the house.

Viernes: We woke up dark and early to catch a bus to gooooo and milk vacas! So cows are really stinky and gross and kind of scary but I milked one! It was intense let me tell you. Elder Ashton is from Idaho and he was grinning like a little kid. He's so country it's hilarious. And he keeps starting singing country songs and stopping because he knows I'll sing the rest of it. I feel a little used as a human ipod. But the hermano that owns the finca gave us cups of milk straight from the cow and it was all steaming and frothy yum... But we got to feed the baby cows with bottles and it was really cute I think I got some pretty tender pictures of that d'awwwww. 

 Walking back to take the bus afterwards we saw a bridge so we went afterwards we saw a bridge so we went to go take pictures on it and it made me think of the swinging bridge in Arroyo Grande that we always take pictures on. But this one swings a lot more and it's about half as sturdy and like three times the size!

Sábado: My companion and I bought everything to make tacos for the elders and family L so that we could have a valentines day dinner with them. We cooked two whole chickens and shredded them by hand, I got to make the salsa and there was a ton of jalapeños to be sure! The hermana that was letting us use her kitchen said that she didnt want any of the salsa because it was too spicy and I was worried that nobody was going to want to eat it but by the time we had dinner i guess the jalapeños calmed down or something because everyone loved it! And Calpa and I were a little daunted by having to make so many tortillas but as we were making the masa one of friends of our investigators was like I can make tortillas like nobody's business so were were like knock yourself out! So she comes back an our later with a TON of HUGE corn tortillas, I´ve literally never seen tortillas so big and perfect before it was crazy. So all in all the dinner turned out to be a success and everyone loved the food and the salsa and the chimol turned out great! 

Domingo: nothing much happened besides having the best baleadas of my honduran life so far and working really hard with our investigators. It really amazes me how much we have to plead with people to actually care! Like it feels wrong to me sometimes, this gospel is so precious to me and I have to work with people to actually get them to want it! I feel like a physical trainer sometimes. Like I know that this will really benefit these people and improve their lives and they know that too, but they don't want to do it! I've really had to work on not letting that deteriorate the significance that this gospel has for me just because most of these people regard it as nothing. But it's super awesome when people actually have an interest and want to change. I love love love love it. 

¡Hoy!: we went to a different finca and Elder Ashton got to milk a different cow! But really this property was super gorgeous and reminded me of a greener california, I loved it. And this time I was prepared for my fresh cow milk with a baggy of Nesquick and a little plastic spoon. Everyone didnt believe me at first but they just dont know how I roll. 

Anyway that's all for this week hopefully nextime I'll have my little notebook and the update wont be so crazy, but I love you all and the church is true and its awesome!

Jalapeños Pizza!

This week was the week that I put jalapeños on pizza and nearly killed 3 Hondurans, 2 Americans, and 1 Colombian.

Martes: We went to Santa Rita to find out if we had tranfers or not and these kids are evil I swear. Our zone leaders tell us that we can find out what the changes our if we find 18 little pieces of paper hidden throughout the building that have the names of the people and places in the transfers. It was torture. But yeah, I'm still with my momma and I get to "kill" her at the end of this transfer. And then I'll most likely train a new Latina. 

After the meeting we went back to Morazan and had Chinese with the elders and it was our last time going out to eat with all of the elders. it was like a 4 course meal, A TON OF FOOD. and it was made by real live Chinese people too! Like I don't know where they got them from. well probably China...

After that we went to a member's house and we were going to play monopoly with Elder Montiel because this was basically his last day in the mission before he goes home to Mexico. But the lady of the house said that she wanted us to make pizzas. And they turned to the gringos to make it. And I was like woah I can't make anything without a recipe. But luckily Elder Ashton knew how so they sent my comp and I and two other elders down to go buy everything for the pizzas. We ended up making like 6 pizzas and they all turned out really good! With various toppings and some of those toppings included jalapeños and that's when I almost killed everyone because I didn't think they were that hot but these poor Hondurans don't know how to handle the picante. You'd think that someone set their tongues on fire they were freaking out so much. ahah I felt a little bad...

Miércoles: We met our two new elders. One is from Paraguay and the other is from El Salvador. Hermana Calpa thought it would be funny to pretend to be an investigator so we set up an appointment with the elders and I sat in the other room because the big gringa is a dead giveaway. But it actually was a really good, spiritual lesson. And afterwards Calpa left and came back with her name tag and her skirt on and the elders were like are you kidding me. And then we went all to get pollo and tajadas at the place next door and the new elders weren't hungry and we already knew that our district wasn't ever going to be the same. But that's okay, I think we'll get a lot more done. Our district isn't lazy but we could definitely be more obedient and involved. 

I was reading in a church magazine and I really really really liked this quote by Dieter F. Uchtdorf 

                ¨If you believe this in your hearts---

                 if you really believe the great mission of our Heavenly Father

                 is to exalt and glorify his children 

                 and that He knows best how to do it--- 

                 doesn't it make sense to embrace and follow His commandments,

                 even the ones that appear difficult?

                 Should we not cherish the light posts
                 He has given that guide us through the darkness and trials of mortality?¨

I don't always understand all of the rules, but I do know that God loves his children. And maybe he knows something we don't  

Jueves:  Some of the jovenes came with us to invite Heydi ( recently baptized 15 year old) to seminary. They were really sweet with her and I'm glad because she is so so soooo shy. They also invited her to this seminary dinner and dance and one of the girls has a dress she can borrow. She lives just down the hill from these kids but her life is extremely different. I really hope she can get a good education and improve her situation, she's such a lovely girl. We're still working with another 16 year old, Tania, and we're trying to get her to understand that her baptism isn't valid. But who wants to hear that?

We were also teaching this lady and she was following everything we were saying and was like yeah I want to read the Book of Mormon and find out if it's the word of God. So we were like great, when can we stop by and and explain more and she was like woah woah woah I can't receive lessons from you guys, I go to my own church I can´t change I can´t. Everyone is scared to reject the word of God so they talk to us, but they´re scared of what their pastor will say so they 

don´t want to find out more. 

Anyway I made spaghetti with real sauce (Prego) and it made me baggggy and that was after we had bread that Hna M´s mom made that reminded how good my mommy´s bread is. 

Viernes: 100 days in the mission! Super rápido! We didn't want to leave the house because -rain and because -mud. 

We made ourselves baleadas for lunch and Calpa is really inspirational. My first tortilla was really ugly and I was sad but she was like this one is ugly, but the next one is going to better. And she was right. It wasn't catratcha perfect or anything, but every tortilla was progressively better. But it's okay because the scrambled eggs with quesillo, bell peppers, and onions were on point if I do say so myself. But yeah when we finally got out, three of our appointments fell through but we did get to talk to a lady who just lost her baby and she really wants to know more about how her family can be together forever and how she can have her baby again one day. We brought Heydi over to Hermana A's house so that she could borrow the dress and they held her down and did her makeup and the poor thing looked like she was in pain! I don´t think she's ever worn makeup before in her life. We went Hna M's afterwards and she made us baleadas and they were like over nine thousand times better than the ones we made for lunch. Oh and I don't remember if I already wrote about this, but I think it's so funny how Hna M feeds her huge dogs tortillas for their dinner, and the M family sticks a ball of masa on the wall for their parrot. 

Sábado: I still don't understand why letting the boys run around with no pants on is a thing. LIke shirt, yes, shoes, yes, pants, no. That can't be healthy

 We visited fam L and we taught them about the Book of Mormon and how it makes sense that God would talk to more than just the people in Jerusalem, because he loves all his children. At the end of the lesson they asked us if we could pray for them because they have 6 of their 10 children in the US and they haven't heard anything from them in years. They were both really sad.

Trying to teach the M family that we recently baptized is like herding cats. 

At dinner my comp explained to me how Utah Mormons are really weird and that her first question after she found out I was her comp was if I was from Utah. It was pretty funny. But I told her we have to be nice to the people from Utah even though they're a little different. 

We taught Tania after dinner and she still feels like she doesn't need to be rebaptized. I feel like we just need to be patient with her. She's really awesome though, she's been coming to church and doing the personal progress program even! I think we just need to give her more time. 

Domingo: Had macheteadas and hot chocolate for breakfast before the power went out. We almost died the night before because it was so flippin cold. I was wearing two sweaters and two pairs of sweats but my toesies were freezing. So yeah it was really cold and I really didn't feel like taking a cold shower. 

We left to go bring the kids to church and we saw Henry but they said he wasn't home and eventually they admitted that he was hiding from us because he didn't want to go to church. And he still hasn't been confirmed in the church! Again, herding cats. 

We got his sister and his cousin to come but these kids really need a mom to come to church with them, as a FAMILY. We had lunch at Hna A's after church and her son asked me how many languages I speak and I was like English and Spanish and he was like that's it? Whaaaa how many languages do you speak? spanish and catracho? Learning languages is hard! Oh and at lunch we didnt have enough tortillas so we had to use utensils and it was really weird. Food really does taste better when you eat with tortillas or your hands. Calpa said she felt really disconected from her food. 

The power was out all day so I didn't have to teach piano, but I uploaded the photos Tirsa (she's ten) took of my lessons last week. 

We visited this lady and she gave us some oregano from her backyard! Calpa wants to make tea with it and I want to try it. 

Oh and remember how I asked Hno Ody to wear a white shirt and tie to church and comp said that he wouldn't? Well he came to church in a white shirt and the elders helped him tie his tie! Booyah. 

We went to Hna M's for dinner again and there was this HUGE spider on the wall and I killed it with my book of mormon and the legs still stuck out on either side! My comp is literally scared of everything so being with her has helped me suck it up if Im scared or grossed out because I know that I'm going to have to be the one that does something in the end haha. 

Anyway congrats to whoever reads this whole thing haha. I love you mommy! 

And I love all my friends and family.

 Montón de amor de Morazan 

Beware the Fuerte Ojos!

So I don't really  have anything for the bloggy right now. Our plan today was for our zone and like 3 others to go to Tela (the beach). And I was excited because mi amigo Elder Glines serves there and I haven't seen the ocean in a long time. So we woke up at 5 this morning so that we could catch the bus to meet the other missionaries and then we all took a bus just us missionaries which was really cool. But we got like an hour and half away and the bus broke down! In the countryside! So long story short we spent most of our time waiting for them to fix the bus and then finally we took a bus passing by back to Progreso where we all started and we had Wendy's for lunch so the day wasn't a total flop because I got to have french fries with a frosty to dip them in. And of course a bacon cheeseburger because I'm watching my figure. But yeah we got back to Morazan finally and then went straight to this internet cafe to write home so I dont have my card reader to download any pictures.

Martes: We had our district meeting but I don't really remember what we talked about because I was waiting for the Sister Training Leaders to arrive at any second and I was super nervous to do divisions with them because I've never really done them before! So basically they're like the main sister missionaries for our zone and they come and one of them goes with my comp on teaching appointments and another goes with me and they like evaluate how we're doing. And really it didn't seem like it would be that bad but like everyone I talked to even the Sister Training Leaders themselves said that they really don't like divisions. So that's why I was nervous. But I ended up going with Hermana Peterson from Utah and she was super maciza and we talked in English between our lessons which was nice too. But yeah, directing those lessons by myself is hard! Usually I just make comments or teach concepts and bear my testimony. But like my companion wasn't there so I had to make small talk which absolutely terrifies me and I also had to ask questions and stuff throughout the lesson you know, check for comprehension and all that goodness. And what I realized is that I've been focusing way too much on how much I can't understand these people and how poor their enunciation is compared to the teachers I had in Mexico that I hadn't thought too much about how they cant understand me either! So I have a new goal to work on my enunciation and my comp has been helping me so I think it's been improving but yeah! It was definitely an eye opener! Talk about a beam in my own eye. Also during divisions we visited a member that was baptized last year but still doesn't have the priesthood because he doesnt like wearing white shirts! So I talked to him about how great a blessing the priesthood was in my life with dad and my brothers and he said that he would try and wear a white shirt on sunday! But I told my companion later and she said that he's said the same thing before but he doesnt follow through.  But yeah divisions are weird because they stayed the night and our apartment seems a lot smaller with four people in it. And I was trying not to have a break down when they were walking in their outside shoes on my clean floor. So in the end, divisions weren't so bad because the Hermana that I was with was really helpful and supportive and not judgmental, so yeah! 

Miércoles: So I learned about this belief that a lot of people have here. Certain people have fuerte vista, or fuerte ojos, and they can kill things just by looking at them. But not big things, just like babies or baby animals or like a part of someones body. So they put red strings on lambs and babies to protect them and if someone looks at you that has the fuerte vista, then they have to touch your hair or your arm or your nose or whatever so that they don't damage it with their sight. So yeah ya gotta watch out for that. 

In other non weird news we've been working a ton with our newly baptized guiros but they are just all over the place it's really hard to get them in one place and get them focused. Also their grandma is sick and in the hospital so the oldest, Heydi, basically has to cook for all of the kids and a surprising amount of full grown uncles that still live at home? But yeah she was so busy the poor thing we just taught the mom of Henry and Rosa instead about supporting her children in their decision to be baptized and being a good example to them. There's a lot of yelling and harsh language in these households, it's super sad. 

Jueves: We did a lot of contacting. It was still mostly Calpa but I'm pretty sure I could do it if I had to! Also it's kind of rare if people say that they dont want to talk to us. Like if they don't want to talk to us they just dont answer. But like if they answer they're like yes of course, I can't reject anyone that preaches the word of God. Because they're all like super religious superstitious right? So yeah that's nice that they don't reject us but at they same time, we talk to so many people and spend so much time talking to people that nod their head the whole time and agree with everything but we know that they aren´t going to change anything. We leave them pamphlets to read and they don´t read them. Or we ask them to pray and ask God if what we´re teaching is true, but they don't. 

But the few that actually do are super awesome so there's that! While we were contacting I also realized that our area is really big but also gorgeous! I just want to go through and take all the trash out of the streams, it would be so much prettier. 

Viernes: We talked to this Catholic guy that really new his stuff in the Bible and was super proud of it. But he was really surprised at how well my comp could answer all of his questions and contest all of his objections so that was really cool and yeah I need to read the Bible more! They love quoting scriptures and I even heard about this guy that basically has the whole New Testament memorized! So yeah I need to work on my Santa Biblia reading. 

We shared a video with one of the families that we're teaching and we brought a member a long and in the end it was basically just the member and the hermanas watching the video because everyone else either got distracted with their phones or kids or left. So that was really frustrating. A real patience building experience haha. 

Sábado: More contacting! And we talked with Celbin, they oldest in the family that we're teaching, and his mom and throughout the lesson he had really good questions and did all of his reading and at the end of the lesson we set a date for his baptism and for his mom too! And in the evening we went to a member's house that we always like visiting and I think this is the first time we went and we didnt eat anything! But that's because we were fasting. But she still insisted on sending us home with these little donut things.,

Domingo: the two guiros that were baptized like 3 weeks ago still havent been confirmed! They didnt go to church on sunday which is crazy because we were at their house that morning helping Heydi make tortillas (correction:my companion helped and I watched because we all decided that my tortilla making was sub par and impeding the process) so literally we left for like 15 minutes to go bring some people to church that we contacted the day before and the kids split. So I dont know what we're going to do about that...

Anyway that's all for this week, a montón de amor directamente de Morazan!