14,000 Years Old?

Right now I need my giraffe blanket, hot cocoa, and my dog to cuddle with, it's so cold! But hey I have the Bible to keep me warm. It's been cold and rainy almost all week. Which means a ton of mud, And we just deep cleaned our apartment last monday! So we've been going to great lengths to keep it clean, like walking on our knees if we forget something inside or walking on towels. I need to buy jelly shoes or something that does better in the water because my toms aren't cutting it right now. I don't have that many photos to share this week either, lo siento! 

Martes: Our zone meeting was directed by the mission president, he brought dunkin donuts and not any of that basic glazed business either, all sorts. He taught us for a long time and the way that he teaches is super crazy, like it seems like he's all over the place but he starts out with a plan and then goes wherever our questions take him or wherever he feels like he should go with the lesson. It was so cool though. He talked about how our bodies might be 19 or 20, but if we believe that we lived in heaven with God before we were born, then our spirits are AT LEAST 14,000 years old. Like whaaaat. So when we give into sin or make stupid mistakes it's super sad because our spirit knows better but we're giving into what our 20 year old body wants. And also, when we're teaching these people the gospel, we're really just reminding them of what they already knew before they were born. Like my brain was exploding trying to think of it that way. Like we can actually be eternal if we want. And the requirements are things that would make us happy anyway. 

I was actually a little proud of myself (it's a sin, I know) but I always have all these ideas in our lessons but I can never express them. But more or less I was able to tell this "less involved" member that there are many paths to happiness and contentment, but there's only one path to salvation, and that's the path of Jesus Christ. I can't emphasize enough how true this is. Before my mission and still now sometimes, I'd think, this person is doing fine without the gospel, like they're good people, they're life isn't really missing anything. But the gospel isn't a "life improver" it's a life saver. Not right now, but in the life to come. But the thing is that people get a little freaked out when you talk in an eternal perspective like that.

Also on Tuesday I GOT MY CHRISTMAS PACKAGE FROM MY MOMMY. I thought I wouldn't have my mom's christmas cookies until 2016 to be honest. An elder in my district was like "I remember when my family used to love me" But yeah like if you ever feel like sending a package again for any reason I have tons of suggestions! Like hand sanitizer, I'm already running out and the little bottles aren't as easy to find. But yeah, I heated up the magic middle cookies in the microwave and I about died/cried. I shared with my comp and tried to explain how good all of these cookies are fresh out of the oven. 

Miércoles: A miracle happened on Wednesday. Usually we have pollo or unborn pollo for lunch at Hna Ana Rosa's but this time we had sardines from the can so that was a first for me. Oh and we were out contacting which usually makes me kind of depressed because nobody wants to talk to me but they're always stoked to talk to my comp, haha. But anyway we talked to this guy that I think is a pastor and his little grandaugher wanted to play with me sooo bad so I was holding a teddy bear and playing with her while trying to pay attention to the lesson. I wasn't teaching anything like this was a little too advanced for me haha. But yeah he was saying that there's so many types of Christian churches because it's like coffee, there's different types, different ways of preparing it, and different ways of serving it. But in the end it's all coffee. So I thought that was interesting. 

Oh and in our lesson later with my favorite family that we're teaching right now, I got to explain the example that we use when we're teaching the fall of Adam and Eve. And they said that they understood it so yay! So yeah the oldest kid in that family is my age, and he's super cool and I love teaching him because he has good questions and thoughtful answers and he really wants to learn. But they had a neighbor lady over and she brought kid and I swear that little child was so cute but also so possessed by a devil or something, she was crazy the whole time, smacking everyone and screaming and when the oldest kid was trying to say the closing prayer, she was trying to poke people's eyes out! He literally had to try 3 times to say the prayer because my comp was laughing so much. So yeah, hopefully our next lesson will be a little more peaceful and spiritual? 

Jueves: We had another planning session, but we used christmas cookies to help us get through it. We taught one of our investigators and she's great but it's been about a week since we've taught her. And you'd think that's not a lot of time, but for lessons it is. She forgot almost everything we taught her so we basically just reviewed everything and asked her to please read what we asked her to read. Like literally it's still Christmas break, who doesn't have time to read a little chapter? But yeah. We hiked up and visited a couple where the husband was just baptized last August. He's spent the last 10 years of their marriage working in the united states. And he's talking about wanting to go back already. So yeah we got to talk about how we both miss bacon and waffles. But yeah everyone here has a kid or a spouse or has worked in the united states. Like at least one person every day talks about the states, it's weird because I'm pretty sure when I was in the US I didn't hear anything about Honduras... So this couple asked us to stay for dinner which was great because my companion and I were thinking that the husband didnt really like us, that he preferred talking to the elders. But he wanted us to stay for dinner and he let me play with his Huskies in their backyard and they are so pretty! 

Viernes: Left super early in the morning to go to La Lima for a meeting. It was for trainers (such as my comp) and trainees (such as yours truly) I got to see Crosgrove and Glines from my district in the CCM and let me tell you I was sooooo happy to see them. Presidente and Hermana Klein treated us super well with lots of snacks and Pizza hut for lunch, and none of that only pepperoni and cheese business, like legit veggies and legit sausage and legit hawaiian pizzas. I learned a lot of stuff that I should have already known, which made me feel kind of lame, but I also realized that I've improved a lot in the little amount of time that I've been here. And my compañera was so awesome she let me talk with Crosgrove and Glines for like an hour while she waited and talked with their companions. I was thinking how awesome it was to see some familiar faces and then I was thinking how I've really only known those two since November. But they're like my best friends in this continent so yeah. Later, when we were back in Morazán Hna Calpa told me that she was really proud of me because all of the other trainers were asking what she's been doing with me because they were all saying that my spanish was really good and they were wondering if I spoke spanish before the mission! So she was really happy with me that day so I think that's why she was ok with waiting while I talked with my friends for a really long time. 

Sábado: It was raining really hard. Like we were talking in the house and it was hard to hear each other. We had our appointments and when we were done we went over to a member's house and she made us baleadas. I'm still waithing to get tired of baleadas, I'll let you know. Also I keep hearing that this is the hardest mission in the world. Like yeah this country is super dangerous and the standard of living is bad, but also physically, missionaries are going home early all the time because their feet or their knees or their backs just give out and they cant work anymore. But yeah, I'm still waiting for it to get really hard. I'll let you know. Or maybe I wont haha. I don't want to be a whiner. 

Domingo: So we only had two of our investigators come to church so that was a little lame but it was still a good service so I'm glad they came. After church we had baleadas whaaaat and I had my first piano lessons. Say what? Yeah so we were in church a couple of sundays ago and the branch counselor gets up and is like Hermana Nelson is going to be offering piano lessons so that one of our members can play the piano when she's gone. So yeah that was a pleasant surprise. Luckily someone in Santa Rita sent a manual on how to learn to play the hymns so Im basically just following that page by page and let me tell you, in spanish it's a whole different vocabulary. So yeah that was fun. 

Lunes: We went and got Chinese food! It was a really long walk but we wanted to try chinese food in honduras. So we ordered and it was a huge plate of rice and chow mein with some meat and veggies and we also got fries. So yeah, super authentic. 

So that's all for this week! Todavia buen animo!
I love my family and friends,
I can feel the support from here <3

Another Type of Tamale!

So I tried another type of tamale guys!
It was the kind wrapped in corn husks so I was like okay I've had this kind all my life but noooo. For some reason these lovely hondurans see no need to fill it with anything. So imagine my covert surprise when I finished my (basically a block of masa) tamale without encountering cheese or meat of any kind. Literally just masa, at least they squirted some mantequilla on it to make things a little more interesting. 2 down 18 types of tamales to go? Vamos a ver.

OH and more importantly, this week FOUR OF MY LITTLE INVESTIGATORS GOT BAPTIZED. So I guess that means I can come home now? JK I like it here I'm never coming back. 

Martes: We went to lunch with the elders after our meeting and this place was so posh, we actually sat down and had menus and the plates had P.F. Chang's written on them. But in the end I just ended up paying double for chicken and tajajdas that weren't even that good hahah. We also went over the baptismal questions with our kids, they're super shy but as we go over the same things over and over again, they are starting to learn. 

Miércoles: My comp thought that her cold was worse than mine like not that this is a competition or anything but my nose has literally bled because it was so raw. haha she was only sick for two days poor thing and I've had a cold on and off since I got here. \

When we had Pollolandia for lunch at Hna Ana Rosa's (she feeds us lunch almost every day, idk if I mentioned that) And she gave us our plates and I was like yo where's my tortillas so I guess Honduras is changing me because a month ago I didn't understand why they had plates with fried chicken, fries, and two tortillas. 

We had Heydi, Suyapa, and Rosa over at one of the member's house so that they could meet the elder that would be interviewing them for their baptisms and so that they could feel a little more comfortable. Also we needed to get them away from their house, it's really crazy with kids running around and chickens and its cramped and dirty. We watched a video with them and gave them soda and churros, I think it was good, they're so quiet it's hard to tell sometimes! 

We visited Marybelle because I hoped she would make me tea haha but she ended up giving us dinner and I swear that woman makes the hottest, freshest, tastiest tortillas I've ever had. Also she made us liquados and like everyone here loves liquados and they are super good but they're really just super basic smoothies. Like one time we were ordering them and I asked for a banana chocolate liquado with granola and I swear it was almost the end of the world they could not even fathom 3 ingredients in a smoothie they were like dang woman isnt banana and ice blended with milk enough for you?? So yeah haha, maybe one day Honduras will graduate to smoothies. 

Jueves: We brought The Testaments, over to one of our investigators house to watch. After all three girls showered, their mom went to the bank, and one of the neighbors came and plugged in a dvd player for us to borrow, we finally watched the video! It's about when Jesus visited the Americas after his crucifixion and resurrection and I like it a lot. The girl that we're focusing on teaching, Tania, was crying by the end. I really hope she felt the spirit of the message because she's been praying for an answer if the Book of Mormon is really the word of God. She's really great and she came to church last sunday but she's really faithful in her own church, she's been going by herself for 4 years and she's only 16. Like that's awesome, I know that when I was that age I wasn't that focused on religion. 

Also I was thinking about how in Norway we drove around for like an hour trying to find something to eat before we boarded that slooper and here literally every other house is a pulperia. I love it. I wanna be a pulperia owner when I grow up. Literally all you do is hang out at your own house until someone comes up and asks to buy something and then you give it to them, get money, and go back to chilling. 

Viernes: Left the house at like 7:15 to go make hamburgers because Elder Ashton and Montiel's investigators need to raise money to get married. So like yeah we're helping clean and cut vegetables and I wanted to kick a puppy because the knife I was using on the onions was the dullest thing in the world and it was sharpened by three different people over the course of the day. And these ladies we're telling me to be careful and I was like honey, I've worked prep where I cut like 50 lbs of carrots in one day and I used to sell knives like I know what I'm doing, haha. Anyway, a whole bunch of catrachas came and they set up the tables and put some more wood in the horno and they were like okay, we're gonna assemble these hamburgers and they started making these patties with basically pureed beef that could not hold any form. But I was prepared to not have real burgers beforehand when someone referred to the patties that they were going to make as meat tortillas. These lovely ladies also did not understand that there is a proper order the the assemblage of hamburgers, also they put a ton of this really liquidy sauce inside but we were bagging up the burgers for later. So yeah we bought some burgers to help the fundraiser but they we're extremely soggy by the time we got to eat them! But my comp fried up so friench fries so that was pretty tasty haha. 

In one of our citas this lady showed us her newly made horno and mercy me it was the prettiest one ive seen! I wanna try to make one some day. All you need is dirt and sticks haha. I swear though, they are so cool. I'm going to have to take a picture of one. We spent more time prepping our kids for their baptism. Then they had their baptismal interviews with Elder Ashton and my comp and I had to leave so that we could make it to an appointment that Calpa was super excited about. But the lady turned out to be a little crazy and wouldn't let us talk and I about died when after my comp had tried for like 10 minutes to have an actual discussion with her finally just asked her to please shut up (in english, so the lady couldn't understand) but yeah I about died. She was saying that our church was the works of men and I tried calmly and lovingly reasoning with her but with some people you just have to thank them for their time and dip! 

So we went back to the member's house where the baptismal interviews were being held and the kids that weren't being interviewed were watching Tangled and I swear it almost killed me! 

Sábado: The day of the baptisms! I was literally so proud of these kids! We've been working with them for a while now and I loved teaching them how to pray and about the gospel, it's been great. It was difficult to find white clothes for all of the kids but the elders helped a lot and Hna Calpa sewed up their clothes (by hand!!) so that they would fit a little better. We were able to have a LOT of investigators at the baptism, so that was great. And the missionaries sang that primary song about baptism, I forget the name in spanish and in english, but it was really great. The kids were a little nervous to go into the river but Rosa (the youngest) was super brave and said she wanted to go first. One of the young men in our ward baptized all four of them, it was great. And after the baptisms we went to the house of Henry and Rosa's mom and gave them the cakes that we made and we ended up staying for dinner! These kids really like taking pictures, so there's a lot from that evening on my dropbox. 

Domingo: only two of the girls, Heydi and Rosa, showed up to church to be confirmed. We talked to the other two, Suyapa, and Henry after church, about the importance of recieving the holy ghost after baptism and how Jesus taught about the baptism of water AND fire. Oh and I gave a talk! Hna Calpa said it was good but she's my mom, she has to say that. But yeah it was about when Jesus came to the americas. And I love that topic. The Book of Mormon is true.

Tres Leches Cakes!

So we are definitely starting out the new year right with basically our worst numbers ever lesson wise this week, but I've been remembering to take my gummy vitamins every day so it hasn't been a total flop

Lunes: yes we had so much fun at our picnic! We took the bus to a really nice park in Negrito but it's mostly concrete so we didn't sit on the grass or anything but it was still a nice picnic. After we ate, we played futbol with the elders and I absolutely baby giraffed it but it was still fun. Then like six honduran kids wanted to play with us and we ended up playing for like two hours and we missed the last bus back to Morazan and we were super sweaty and tired! All the latinos got super excited whenever I made a goal and they about died when I headed the ball to Elder Ashton and he headed it to Rosales it was hilarious we're so white and awkward. My comp told be later that I'm never going to have a district this fun again and that the rest of my mission is going to be super boring so yayy haha so much to look forward to. Oh and one of the members came and picked us up, so we weren't stranded. 

Martes: My comp was super baggy because it's Carnival season in Columbia right now. (I'm totally going 2016 it sounds freaking awesome) We challenged one of our families that we're teaching to stop drinking coffee. Everyone drinks coffee here, even the little kids. But it was cool because my companion has only been a member of the church for 5 years so she can relate with the investigators and tell them about her experience because she used to drink a ton of coffee. Oh and I don´t know if I mentioned this but when I bought everything for our picninc on Lunes (4 bags of bread, condiments, a pineapple, milk, cilantro, grapes, a papaya, celery, a whole frozen chicken, avocados, tomatoes, and lettuce) the total was all under 30 USD. whaaaaaat. 

Miércoles: I bought everything we needed to make two tres leches cakes and it ws all under 20 USD. whaaaaaat. 

Oh okay so we were sitting in our lesson with the lovely Lopez family having a grand old time and I move my hair and feel something on my neck. something horribly familiar. So I was trying not to freak out and I smiled pleasantly throughout the rest of the lesson but I was screaming inside. After we finally left I asked Calpa to talke a look and she started freaking out and said we needed to find a nurse or something but we didnt't know anyone so we went to Fanny's and IT WAS A TICK SUCKING ON THE BACK OF MY NECK. and they tried to yank it out right away and I was like noooo and I tried to explain that Ive had tick bites before and some parts of the tick got left behind and it was terrible and yeah. Calpa was listing off places I could have gotten it,, like certain investigators and I was just like no, it's just.....Honduras in general, it doesn't matter. 

Jueves: Calpa made me banana pancakes and it was raining last night so awwww. We spent most of the day making cakes for one of the member's cumpleaños and I think they turned out super tasty! The recipe was in English so I felt useful for once but I definitely need to work on my cooking vocab. Oh and merciful heavens I conducted my first weekly planning session today and I was honestly a little taken aback at how much I absolutely detested it with every fibre of my being. Which is crazy because I'm usually super cool with everything I have to do in the mission, even if it's a little difficult. I just don't like all the numbers and metas that make us focus on numbers instead of people. I know it's just supposed to push us to be better missionaries but holy cow I am trying really hard to like weekly planning sessions. 

Later we got pollo con tajadas with the elders and celebrated Rosales' one year in the mission (and also my one little month haha) with one of the cakes that we made. 

Viernes: We went with the Elders to Pata Gallina to visit one of our little abuelitos who is really sick. It was about an hour bus ride and about an hour walking from the main road but the country was beautiful. When he saw us all walk in the door, he started crying, it broke my heart. He couldn´t get up to greet us but I hope our visit strengthened him a little. Afterwards we went to look at the river that basically goes by their backyard and it was absolutley gorgeous, the pictures don't do it justice. When we finally got back to Morazan we only had time for one cita before it was time to go home and it was with an old lady and the 7 ducks in her house. 

Sábado: We went on a hike with Ashton and Morales at like 5 in the morning to see the sunrise from the mountain but it was really cloudy and the sun rose on the opposite side of the mountain so yeah. But it was still fun and really pretty. We went to Marybelles house and she fed us the tastiest soup and she gave us something that looked like cake but she called it a quesadilla so like it was kind of crumbly cheesy but sweet and I was confused, But literally I just want to spend like a week with her and learn all of her ways because she doesnt have much to work with but everything makes is soooo good. We went back to her house later after our appointments and made plantain chips dipped in an egg and flour mix and fried and it was so rico like why is everything that´s fried so tasty. 

Domingo: Calpa made arroz con leche y canela it was soooo good. The cinnamon here is so much better like it's fresh and not ground. We had 6 investigators come to church today! I really wish I could talk with them more but basically all I can do is smile. When we were sitting in sacrament meeting Hna Marybelle smoothed down my hair and it reminded me so much of my ma I legit teared up a little hahha. And our meeting was basically everyone that went to the temple in Tegucigalpa this week bearing terstimony of their experience. It was awesome and I really wish I could have gone. Later we went back to Hna Marybelles and made macheteadas and they're kind of like those fried scones, but we didn't have anything to put on them so it was just like fried bread... And I also tried bread made in those hornos that they have outside of their houses, it was super good but really crumbly. 

• So there´s the update! God is good, the church is true, and if you're reading this I love you!

Feliz Año Nuevo

Martes: Made the hour-long trip to Santa Rita for our zone meeting and we were only 20 minutes late. We talked about obeying the rules out of love for Jesus and how through Christ, a resolution to be perfect is actually attainable. Which is hard to imagine but I can dig it.

And while we were there, I got to pick up my package! I didn´t expect any christmas packages until like february but my aunts came through and they´re amazing and it made my week/month/year. 

Miércoles: so our New year´s eve... during the day we got fed torrejas? basically kind of like honduran french toast because it involves soaking a grain based thing in eggs. And the sugar is all carmelized. We went to a part member home for dinner at 7 but they weren´t ready until 9 so we sat around for a long time which would have been fine but we were scheduled for another dinner at 8 so there was a lot of apologizing done by the missionaries of morazan that day. But eventually Hna Ana Rosa came and picked us up and all 8 of us were in a 5-seater so it was nice and cozy. oh and get this, while we were driving to the other house, I SAW A GRINGO. An actual gringo, In the wild. But we were driving so I couldn´t talk to him and ask him what the heck he was doing in the streets of honduras at night on new years eve. 

Also the fireworks here are amazing. I don´t care too much for the loud ones in the streets. 

But at night, there were the huge, beautiful ones in the air, all over the place. I was standing on our pila on our back balcony so that I could see them all. They were literally everywhere, above main street, in the hills and mountains surrounding us, it was awesome. It was a little different from the time when I watched the Pismo firework show from the hot tub on Uncle Bob´s roof, but almost the same. 

Jueves: I´m gonna teach ya´ll what baggy means. Okay, so it´s kind of like the term trunky, you don´t feel motivated to work, you miss home, you´re not depressed but it´s something like it. It happens to all missionaries but on Jueves my comp and I were super baggy and we didn´t do much! The whole town of morazan was sleeping off whatever they did new years eve so there wasn´t hardly anyone to talk to. Oh and apparently it's normal to eat armadillo here so I want to try it. 

Viernes: at lunch I watched one lady use a piece of hair to floss her teeth and another pulled a piece of thread out of her shirt and used that. And for 4 days we were worrying about one of our really old members because every time we tried to visit his family said he was sick. Turns out he was just getting turnt. So that was disappointing. And really sad. He´s in the hospital right now. Like I don´t understand why his family would let him get like that. Also later that day tiny kid, probably like two years old was yelling after me, guapa! guapa! mi amor! and Hna Calpa told me that I have a giper now, which is like a crush here or something. it was pretty funny

Sábado:  Sábado we talked to a lot of inactive members and tried to get them to come to church the following day.  I wish getting members out of investigators was as simple as ¨just add water¨ but after baptism, people don´t just automatically know what to do. We have a real hard time with retention here. People get baptized but then they stop going or they start drinking again or other things like that. And we ask so much of the members that are faithful because we only have so many people to go to when we need sunday school teachers and things like that.

We stood for 20 minutes and watched a girl make tortillas. It was kind of awkward. My comp said ¨pues, si¨ like every ten secons 

Domingo: we had six investigators come to church!

okay gotta go and have a picnic with the elders. We made chicken salad sandwiches, which is much harder when you have to shred the chicken by hand.