Happy Birthday Hermana Nelson!

Lunes 18 de julio 2016:

Basically all we did today was go to walmart, it was Hna Garcia's first time! But she was not too impressed,

I forgot to grab a shopping cart on the way in and i was accumulating to many things for my lanky arms to carry buuut we ran into the missionaries and took over half of their cart jajajaj 

Martes 19 de Julio:

"He aquì, Dios es mi salvacion, confiare y no temere, porque el señor JEHOVA es mi fortaleza y mi cancion; y tambien ha llegado a ser salvacion para mi. Por tanto, con gozo sacareis agua de las fuentes de salvacion."

2 Nefi 22:2-3

translation:

 2 Nephi 22: 2 “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation.

 3 Therefore, with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.”

(video of previous companion w/umbrella)

So it was raining and my comp has broken all of the umbrellas we have in the house so i was like sweet we should contact because people will have pity on us and let us in out of the rain so the very first person we contact we ask him his name and his like ummmm my name...Hernan and we were like sweet Hernan is it okay if we can talk w/u for a lil bit? So he's like sure and goes back inside and never comes back out.

Miercoles 20 de Julio:

Knowledge- one of the attributes of God. Knowledge of divine and spiritual things is absolutely essential for one's salvation; hence the gospel is to be taught to every soul. "how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?" (Rom 10.14)

Knowledge is not obtained all at once, even by revelation, but line upon line, precept upon precept. 

The scriptures , and also living prophets, are given so that the people might have knowledge of the things of God and "know how to worship and know what you worship" (d&c 93;19)

Knowledge is one of the endowments of the holy ghost and one of the gifts of the spirit.

Since no one can be saved in ignorance of the gospel, and one progresses only as fast as he gains knowledge, it follows that the person who gains knowledge will have "the advantage in the world to come"

Someone gave me a *topogigio and there was hair inside #saboraheadandshoulders
*topogigio is frozen chocolate milk or fruit juice inside a little sandwhich bag that we buy for about 2 lempira. you bite the corner off and eat it as it melts haha

Jueves 21 de Julio:

"Leaven; anything that in cooking produces fermentation, a lump of old dough being used in most instances. 

It was probably forbidden in the passover feast because there was associated with it the idea of corruption.

So we went to go help our little neighbor Jasmine with her english today and her parents are SO SWEET. They said that the dad can fix my camera, like he looked it over and said that it's possible! 

After working with Jasmine for a little while it was time to go but before we left her mom commented in broken english that i am a very gentle person and very kind with her daughter. #d'awwwww 

I did not contact at all today it was v sad

Viernes 22 de Julio:

We met an inactive member of the church today. He studied a lot of theology and now he's confused. He talked a lot about sexism in the church and i tried to explain to him that more than anything, it's the country. The majority do not respect women at all it's so sad.

Sabado 23 de Julio:

"ay de4 todos aquellos que tiemblan, y estàn enojados a causa de la verdad de Dios! pues he aqui, aquel que esta edificado sobre un cimiento arenoso, tiembla por miedo de caer." 2 Nefi 28:28

2 Nephi 28:28 And in fine, wo unto all those who tremble, and are angry because of the truth of God! For behold, he that is built upon the rock receiveth it with gladness; and he that is built upon a sandy foundation trembleth lest he shall fall.

I just asked my comp, "How do you spell exagerado? "e-x-a-g-e-r-a-d-o" "its with just one g? "yep" "oh for a minute i thought it was with two, but that would be exaggerado" lololololol

Basically we spent all day in the house because my comp is not doing too good :( back problems.

We went to go eat almuerzo and it was pigs feet. Hno Marco was CONVINCED that we weren’t going to like it: Jennifer told us that he was complaining all morning as they were out buying groceries 

i just told them that when i told them in the beginning that i like EVERYTHING, i meant it. 

Domingo 24 de Julio:

The light of christ is just what the words imply; enlightenment, knowledge, and an uplifting, ennobling, persevering influence that comes upon mankind because of Jesus Christ.

Lunes 25 de Julio:

i went and bought souvenirs today and got my nails done and we went out to lunch for mah birthday since there's not going to be time on thursday to party jajaj

its been a really good day tbh

The Tortilla Inflated!

Viernes 8 de Julio:

My companion asked a lady that we contacted today if she was pregnant.

she wasn’t.

Sábado 9 de Julio:

Some members fed us dinner! and one of the daughters wanted to practice her english with me and every few minutes she would ask, "how do you hear my english?" and i was like uh.... with ma ears? but what she really wanted to say was how does my english sound.

Domingo 10 de Julio:

When explaining the doctrine of baptism for the dead in church today, the teacher said that we're "lending" our bodies to our ancestors. That sounds weird.

We had 7 investigators in church today! Rosa came with her daughters even though she was going to have people coming over to visit. she said, "they can come visit but they have to wait until I come back from church"

And Marta found us in the hallway and asked for help filling out a tithing slip. She is so amazing to me. She has next to nothing. She isn’t even baptized yet! But I think she loves the lord and she understands that she needs blessings.

Lunes 11 de Julio:

So today we were supposed to get to Progreso (three hours away) by 8:30 to go to this cool park called Zizima where we were going to rock climb and stuff.

 so I called the taxi the night before so he would come and take us to the bus stop by 4:40

But the thing is that I was up so late getting everything ready that I didn’t hear the alarm in the morning! We didn’t wake up until 6:00 and by then I had like 30 missed calls from Elder Lucero because he was the one that invited us since we had to go through there on the way to San Pedro. 

I felt so bad!

We went to Progresso anyway, just late. But it was still a really good day just not exactly what we had planned.

The good thing is that I get along great with my comp so even when things don’t work out, we don’t stress.

Martes 12 de Julio:

We met an Israeli mind reader, missed the bus, and had one of the most spiritual lessons of my life and afterwards one of the biggest baleadas of my life i fell in love.

Miercoles 13 de Julio:

We got back to our area at 9:30 am took a quick shower (in our respective bathrooms) and then straight to some lessons but afterwards we were so tired I thought we would take a nap for an hour since we woke up at 5:00 but 4 hours later we wake up and there were 39 missed calls from Hna Rojas, Elder Lucero, and my district leader. they thought we had died. I felt awful. But dang I have not taken such a mega nap in 4 ever

 

Jueves 14 de Julio:

"And if a soul sin, and commit any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the Lord; though he wist it not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity." Leviticus 5:17

"se que las palabras de verdad son duras contra toda impureza; mas los justos no las temen, porque aman a la verdad y son constantes." 2 Nefi 9:40

"I know that the words of truth are hard against all uncleanness; but the righteous fear them not, for they love the truth and are not shaken." 2 Nephi 9:40

12:25 pm Okay so we were making tortillas in the house and my tortilla INFLATED! like idk how to describe how excited I am about this like I can’t explain it. 
The tortilla inflated! 
A tortilla that I made! 
Yeah this isn’t making sense but yeah. 
it was exciting, we hugged, we screamed, we cried, we ate tortillas.

Viernes 15 de Julio:

So I just had my last interview. 

President told me he wasn’t going to have enough time later to interview me when I’m finishing up in a few weeks. 

So that was unexpected.

But he seems to have a lot of confidence in me and in my ability to make good decisions.

In the evening we had a lesson with Marta and we talked about temples and how people can receive saving ordinances after they're dead. She looked up and said "does that mean that someone can help my son?" and I told her "yes"

I don’t know if I've mentioned this before but Marta heard the shots when they killed her son, she was out in the street, homeless, and her son was only 21 years old.

Sabado 16 de Julio:

Marta got baptized today! }It was so stressful though and I felt like nobody wanted to help us.

But in the last minute everything fell into place.

Afterwards Marta shared her testimony. Six years living in the street, being spit upon, kicked, and walked over. Losing herself in alcohol and hard drugs, losing her 21 year old son to gang violence.

I don’t think there were many dry eyes in that small classroom where we held the baptism. 

She even said that she admires herself, she should. She fell so hard and I'm so happy that I could be there when she wanted God's help to get back up.

Domingo 17 de Julio:

Marta got confirmed a member of the church today! I am so grateful for an amazing relief society president that is putting forth such an effort to make her feel welcome.

Oh! in the evening we were out doing lessons and we were sad because we didn't have dinner and we knew that we had no food in the house either.

But! When we visited Leticia the saintly woman gives us two baleadas each and now I know that God loves me 

#itookthepilltomakemetaller

Martes 5 de Julio 

"Y sucedió que se humillaron ante el señor, de tal modo que sentí gozo y grandes esperanzas de que anduvieron por las sendas de la rectitud." 1 Nefi 16:5 

 “And it came to pass that they did humble themselves before the Lord; insomuch that I had joy and great hopes of them, that they would walk in the paths of righteousness.” 1Nephi 16:5

So today we were contacting and we met ANOTHER super receptive family from the Mosquitia and we had a v spiritual lesson, the mom wants to go to church and she wants to bring her 4 kids #yeahhhhh #pense 

I tried out some of my Misquito on them and they thought it was cute and they let me check out their bible  "God" is "Gad" and that's basically the only word I recognize.

In the evening hermana Elena called and we spent the rest of the night hauling water to their house because it's been a month now and they still don’t have water 

crabs keep getting into our house

Miercoles 6 de julio

 This little boy told us a story today, it started with, "there was a little girl living in a forest, but she wasn’t alone, she had a dragon"

This guy said I look like Alice in wonderland

#itookthepilltomakemetaller #twinkletwinklelittlebat

Jueves 7 de Julio:

A year ago today I fell and hurt my knee a year ago today and Elder Lucero told me he started his mission a year ago today. He's cursed my life from the beginning hahah

"The first epistle of John emphasizes that Jesus has come in the flesh, and shows its bearing on the life of men. It was probably written after the Gospel, for it assumes in the reader a knowledge of the facts that Gospel records. 

It also contains warnings against the dangers that beset a true faith in the literal incarnation of Jesus even before the end of the first century, both from teachers who claimed an authority independent of our Lord's in the revelation of truth and from teachers who refused to acknowledge a real manifestation of the godhead in human flesh.

Viernes 8 de Julio

"Te tengo grabada en las palmas de mis manos”

“I have graven the upon the palms of my hands” Isaiah 49:16 or 1 Nephi 21:16

Marta is so excited for her baptism next week, I’m so proud of her and all that she's been through.

She also goes by Maribel in case there's any confusion, she's the woman that spent 6 years of her life homeless.

She wants us to visit her every day until her baptism. sounds good to me!

Sabado 9 de Julio:

We were trying to go to lessons in the morning but all of the appointments kept falling and between each one we would run into the same little old lady carrying firewood and then help her carry it back to her house until I was just like what are we thinking? the lady keeps showing up with more firewood! So we asked her where she was getting it from and found a muchacho to help us and we got all the wood to her house in two trips. Sure, we didn’t have any lessons, but there's more important things sometimes.

Vos Sos Mia

Martes 28 de Junio:

"Asì, como el señor vive, y como yo vivo, no descenderé hasta mi padre en Bakersfield hasta que haya cumplido lo que el Señor me ha mandado." 1 Nefi 3:15

There's some muchachas in our ward whose mother is pregnant but with a lot of complications, and she works full time too, and on top of that, they still haven't had water for about two weeks in their house. So the poor things came over and showered at our house, we have two bathrooms anyway. And we filled up some 2 liter bottles for them to take home and bottled water to drink.

I was thinking about how even during droughts, we've always had water. Like we knew that we should use it sparingly, but it was never like we turned the knob in the sink and nothing came out.

never like that.

Mièrcoles 29 de Junio:

"According to the OldTestament, things or places were holy that were set apart for a sacred purpose; the opposite of holy is therefore common or profane.

The Israelites were a holy people because they stood in a special relationship to Jehovah.

Under the guidance of the prophets it was seen that what distinguished Jehovah from the gods of the heathen was his personal character.

The word holy therefore came to refer moral character"

"The value of worship in the eyes of God depends upon the personal character of the worshipper."

We contacted a transvestite today. It was 9:00 but we had only contacted 7 people and we needed 8 so we walked around the block one more time and found Paula. Later, when we asked his full name, told us it was paulo. He was baptized a member of the church of Jesus Christ when he was 12 and distanced himself from the church when he was 16 or 17, and now he's 19.

He said he stopped going because of the negative comments from his own relatives that have been members for years. 

He says that sometimes he feels like he should go back, but everytime he gets close to the gates, he turns back around. 

Jueves 30 de Junio:

"A major difficulty in understanding the book of Isaiah is his extensive use of symbolism, as well as his prophetic foresight and literary style. These take many local themes (Which begin in his own day) and extend them to a latter-day fulfillment or application.

Consequently, some prophecies are probably fulfilled more than one time and/or have more than one application."

We contacted this crazy DJ from Guatemala he is so hipster it's nuts and he showed us some of his music and recorded me singing and told me he's going to use it in a remix. Definitely one of the most interesting people that I have met here. His artist name is Aviikell if anyone wants to check him out. I don’t recommend all his music, I’m pretty sure he just showed us some of the cleanest songs, but interesting stuff!

Viernes 1 de Julio:

La Tahzan innallah ma'ana - don't be sad, allah is with us.

I bought teatree mint shampoo and now my hurr is delicious minty fresh.

A lady gave us mangos the size of footballs (north american) and I almost ran into a parked bus waving happily at a person that I recognized. 

Sábado 2 de Julio:

"Y él dijo: Mi presencia irá contigo y te daré descanso

Y Moisés respondió: Si tu presencia no ha de ir conmigo no nos saques de aquí."

Exodó 33:14-15

It's interesting to see how many accounts there are of the Lord taking out or separating his people from the rest. But he wants a holy people, separated from what is common or profane. There has always been a need to be united, one heart one mind. 

So much of the gospel focuses on being able to work together in harmony.

I've also come to realize that exaltation is a team sport, not that I’m thinking too much on getting married or anything hahah but I do understand more that picking a good player 2 will help in the success I acheive. 

Hermana Elena just explained to us that the "bread con quesillo" (white cheese) that she gave us is "quesillo, like what they put on pizza? and bread" okay i would not have been able to guess that hahah

We had another lesson with hna Maribel (the one that was homeless for 6 years?)

she wants so badly to do the right thing, and wants to get baptized asap, but I told her that it would be better to wait until the 16th, but she's excited and ready to leave everything behind her, it's great.

oh and we had hamburgers for lunch! But seriously Im so happy we started eating lunch with fam vasquez, they're kids are adorable and the food is so sososo good. 

Domingo 3 de Julio 2016

Today at lunch with fam Vasquez, their little girl said,

 Hna Nelson?

 yes? 

vos sos mia 

alrighty then. jajaj but it is true that we play and laugh a lot, it's ok Eilene, I can be yours.

oh and while we were outside today I found a huge lizard with like this crazy crest on his head and I caught it! I was so proud of myself, my comp was grossed out, and the investigator took a picture, so Im gonna tell him to send it to me later because... i still don’t have a camera. 

Lunes 4 de Julio:

ummmm yeah there's gringos in my zone here but we didn’t do anything, we just played Monopoly for a little bit and then my companion and I went to Wendys but they only had vanilla Frostys, they didn’t have chocolate. 

happy fourth of July! #murica