Neapolitan Tan?

Martes 8 de marzo

An jiesietibunu itarala eien

That means I love you a lot and I hope you feel the same in Garifuna.

The black people here have their own communities and language, I’ve never visited but I want to learn more and also learn how to make the coconut bread they bake because it is amaaaazing.

Miercoles 9 de marzo:

We had a zone conference today, I realized that I need to be more loving and respectful with people of other religions.

I need to be more patient and supportive as well.

Jueves 10 de marzo:

"But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the faithful and to the evil."

Luke 6:35

This guy stopped to talk to us on the street and to show us where he used to have worms in his mosquito bites but that the worms are dead now. He knows this because they have stopped moving around and the bites have stopped bleeding so much.

We asked Manuel how he was doing with his scripture reading, he told us he hasn’t read for two weeks because bowing his head to read the scriptures in his lap hurts his neck #speechless #alrightythen

Viernes 11 de Marzo

Gym. Tan. Laundry. No but for reals we went to the gym and then spent the next 3 hours outside painting the fences in Pelican resort. I got a little sun burnt while we were painting so now there's some neapolitan action going on on my leg.

All tourist attractions are getting ready for "semana santa" and even though the word santa means holy, this time of year is hot as hell and it's when people have the most parties and craziness.

When we got done painting, the señora gave us sopa marinera which is a soup with a coconut milk base and has shrimp, fish (bones and fins and erthang) guineo, platano maduro, ayote, caracol, and other veggies.

Sabado 12 de marzo

Hasta San Pedro Sula so that my daughter could get her second round of the rabies vaccine. We had plans to go to the city mall since it's right next door to the mission office but President wanted to take us to his favorite bakery, who can say no to that??

So after ordering everything that looked tasty, we ended up with a table full of goodies and from there we cut everything up so that we could all try a little bit of everything. It was an absolute treat!

On the bus ride home I made friends with some backpackers from England, New York, and Brazil, respectively. They were so cool! And the Brasilian forgave me for when I joked that Portugues is like lazy spanish- I had no idea he was Brazilian because he is basically white with light brown hair. oops! I felt so bad. But they said that I should definitely look into it when I get done with my mission. 

We only got 3 lessons today, visiting with hna Soto was especially interesting, idk how but we ended up talking about marriage and she told us about one of her coworkers that spent 22 years in a verbally and physically abusive relationship. He spent a lot of his time at home getting drunk and whenever he would vomit he would point to it and say "do you see that? That's like you, you're nothing but vomit" and other times "you see the broom? This broom is more attractive than you are" Over the years she found herself hating that broom.

And the thing is that Hna Soto, during all that time envied their relationship because he would come and drop her off at work every day with a kiss or a squeeze of the hand and he would send her flowers all the time.

Hna Soto went on to say that perhaps some people marry the person that they think they want instead of the person that God wants for them.

It was an interesting conversation.

Domingo 13 de Marzo

We met the "wife" of Jesus de Nazareth, she doesn’t want to get married but she wants to get baptized. But she doesn’t want to separate from Jesus either because she wants her kids to have their dad. Quite a pickle.

"creo que todavia queda por hacer una lucha eficaz" Mosiah 7:18

"Dare to be Ourselves"

Martes 1 de Marzo

"Behold all ye that kindle fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks, walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks which ye have kindled¨  2 Nephi 7:11, Isaiah 50:11

My companion taught the english class in our meeting today and the game we played was so hard my team lost and I'm the only gringo here.

Calling to verify appointments today we had several people tell us, no don’t worry about it, this is your number right? we'll call you. Nobody who's said that to me has ever called :(

I made the most delicious grilled pepper jack cheese turkey avocado sandwiches in the world and we ate them with papaya #culinarygenius

we are so dead and sore from the gym I just want to sleep so I think I will

Miércoles 2 de marzo

"Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee and hath had compassion on thee.”  Mark 5:19 

Today coincidentally ended up being leg day and also the day we went to go visit Alejandra in Campo Hervir, we almost died hiking up the mountainside buttttt before that we found a house that sells corn tortillas, not tortillas made with maseca (it's big difference for me and I was very excited).

We bought some and were all ready to go make lunch when Hermana Castillo calls and invites us for lunch! We got a little lost but in the end we got there and they fed us fried fish, fried platano slices, and salad and omg the most HEAVENLY pineapple juice.

We're sitting there eating and talking and the hermana tells me about how her nieta is serving in California on her mission and I'm like how nice California is huge but I ask in what part and she says she doesn’t remember but goes on to say she was a gymnast. And I was like okay nooooooo way.

Because I didn't talk to many missionaries while I was home but I did talk to one girl who said she had family in Tela and turns out I know hermana Castillos grand daughter!

neat, right? Well anyway, this lady is just so nice and even gave us a bag with apples and juice and cookies (I have shamefully eaten almost all of said cookies)

Jueves 3 de marzo 

I wanted to sleep all day I was so tired. so tired.

Dardón is getting tired of hearing about how much I dislike planning and Thursdays. I'm like a missionary version of Garfield that hates Thursdays and only sleeps and eats baleadas.

Here in Tela we have a sizeable homeless population. It's sad, we also have a lot of bolos, drunks, that we see a lot because well, they're always in the street and we always happen to be in the street. }Today we walked by one that was having a very serious discussion with a dog sitting on the side of the road, asking the dog why he moved to the United States without telling him first. The dog looked him dead in the eyes and said nothing #heartless

Viernes 4 de marzo

Mark 8:24 but they lost the “Ent" wives

Today my comp got bitten by a stray dog, our phone got wet and started malfunctioning, but it was barely a nip so she's fine and I put the phone in rice and its all good.

Sabado 5 de marzo

"Let's dare to be ourselves, for we do that better than anyone else can" Shirley Briggs

We went to the clinic to see if hna Dardón needed any vaccinations for her dog bite but they said that since she has her tetanus shot, she's fine. #makesnosense 

We only ended up with 4 lessons today and we ran out of text messages and we got caught in the rain without umbrellas.

Domingo 6 de marzo:

dyc 84:47 "y todo aquel que escucha la voz del Espíritu, viene a Dios, sí, el Padre"

So we got a new investigator today and his name is Jesús de Nazaret. I know. I snorted/laughed when he told me and felt super bad afterwards and asked for forgiveness a ton a ton. 

Lunes 7 de marzo:

Pdayyyyyy we started off with very little time in the gym and then we ran over to

Hotel Maya Vista to have breakfast with president and his wife. The other sister missionaries came too, but a half an hour late....

But it was really nice of them to invite us to breakfast. Dardón and I shared an order of crepes and an omelete, not as good as my mom's #baggy

After that, President drove us to Telamar and we went to Pelican Resort and we all made sand castles! Well my companion and I actually just made a creepy face in the sand.

For lunch we got to try this ceviche made with clams (almejas) not clam chowder from the splash but I'll take it.

Nice Photo Hermana!!!

"Act or acted upon?"

Lunes 22 de Febrero:

"Charity. The highest, noblest, strongest kind of love, not merely affection; the pure love of Christ."

"Meditar siempre en estas preguntas: (always meditate on these questions)

'During your mission will you allow your fears to get the better of you? 

Will you only give a portion of your potential to the work before you?'" Dieter F Uchtdorf

We waited for two hours to go to Progreso with some other missionaries just to get off the bus at KFC, eat there with another pair of missionaries, and get back on the bus.

But on the ride back Elder Lucero started talking to the guy in the seat next to him and a lady a few seats ahead was listening in so he invited her to come sit closer and join the conversation. He then turns to me and says "you are going to help me teach this lesson okay?" And I was so nervous because he's suuuper good at teaching and explaining and I'm...not the best pero ahi voy. But it ended up being a really good lesson and I learned a lot. I learned that I need to go slower in the lessons because the majority of people we teach....aren't extremely educated.

Martes: 

"Work hard, be strong, change lives" HH

I miss Mel a lot lately. I'm so proud of her for getting one of the 20 spots in the nursing program though! Sometimes I wish I was cool enough to study medicine.

Hoy pusimos una cita 30 años in advance. (we set an appointment 30 years in advance) He said that when he's 50 he'll change and start to follow Jesus Christ.

We were playing with a puppy during one of our lessons and Dardón and I about died laughing at the face it made when we picked it up. You had to be there.

We were also talking about the way we feel about puppies is the way some people feel about babies. Weird right? Puppies are usually way cuter in my humble opinion.

During our district meeting all the Latinos (I'm the only white missionary in Tela) went wild for my english class, I did a game by request of Elder Vasquez but what they don't know is that it was the exact same game that I used about 2 months ago, but nobody that was there today was in Tela back then. how am I already the person with the most time in the area?? I'm also the oldest by way of time in the mission. jeeez. 

We ended up passing by the same street a ton of times today and this drunk guy kept asking for a kiss or something to remember me by so I walked over and gave him a pamphlet #adioslepido

And the owner of the pulperia at the corner motioned for us to come over and gave us some juice because he said we looked tired from walking in the sun. #pitypoints #score

Miércoles: 

"Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man" Matt 14:11

We came home at 8:15pm today because there were rumors of a "toque de queda" Like the gang 18 declared it or something. Our appointment fell anyway so it was like alright I guess we'll turn in tonight, I wanted to contact 2 more houses though just to get a nice even 10 lessons but whatever. 

The reason we laughed today was this guy Mario that we contacted. He started talking about his heart surgery and all of a sudden he lifts up his shirt to show us the scars and was talking to us for like 5 min with his shirt lifted up all scarred and chubby and hairy and we were trying SO HARD not to laugh at him but he goes on to say he has scars on his legs too and moves his hand over to his pants and we were both like no! no! It was awful we could not keep a straight face it was torture. 

Also, I straight up walked up and contacted a whole family outside their house, I would have never done that before, but I'm changing.

We had our first dinner at a member's home whaaaaat. only 77 days in the branch nada mas. I kinda missed comida catracha

Jueves: 

"Anakin- long necked, a giant race. Settled near Hebron but also met with further north"

-bible dictionary

22 more weekly plannings -_- 

For lunch we had breakfast tacos, I'm a culinary genius. I shot a video of the experience.

The reason we laughed today was a chicken flying out of nowhere right in front of us in campo hervir #ibelieveicanfly

We contacted another person who turned out to be a member turned Jehovas Witness. Still wondering what the JWs got that we don't.

Viernes: 

Matt 18:11-12

I can testify that looking for lost sheep in the mountains is hard work. Especially if the sheep do not want to be found.

2 Nephi 2:14       Am I a thing that acts or a thing that is acted upon?

I was freezing most of the day, wading through water up to my knees at times, but today was a good day!

We found the Israelite guy again it was good talking to him and we had a good lesson in the evening before the power went out.

                                                                                                   Sabado:

Yolanda's husband explained to us that scientists made mosquitos with diseases in order to inflict pain upon the human race.

While we were eating lunch some guys came to put in a metal door with a screen so that we can have air coming in without letting in all of the scientifically engineered mosquitos in.

In the house we have set a new rule that we have to speak english, which honestly I think I forget to follow more than my companion does. 

But i've already noticed a difference in her english and even outside of the house she'll talk in english especially if we don't want people to overhear us. It's very entertaining to say the least.

Domingo:

1 Corinthians 15:58

It was sunny so more people came to church!

This was the week, not too entertaining but today we started out with 2 hours in the gym and then went to go eat at Hotel Maya Vista and this time we brought our cameras! the view was gorgeous to say the least. and the food was exquisite, but a little expensive. the papaya juice that I ordered was basically blended papaya, delish. And the salad and the spaghetti both came with many sea creatures. I would definitely take my family to go eat there if we ever went to Honduras ;P