"Attitude is everything. Pick a good one"

Lunes 15 de febrero:

P-dayyyyy I texted Elder Martinez asking if they at least wanted to get lunch today or something and he just said "quienes mas van a ir" "no sé, tampoco sé donde #wendys" "pero solo hay Wendys in progreso"  -_- dont try # joking with Bolivians, they won't get it.

in the end he said no, and in the end we didn't end up getting our allowance today so I just had a sugar free drink and taqueritos for lunch while we were chilling at the internet.

We had a family home evening as a branch and Ariel, the son of the branch president, opened his mission call, he's going to Chile! The moment right before he opened it reminded me of when I opened my own mission call 20 months ago hahah.

Martes: 

"ye are commanded to be perfect*, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" Matthew 5:48

*complete, finished, fully developed

"ye are not able to abide the presence of God now, neither the ministering of angels: wherefore, continue in patience until ye are perfected"

We played a guessing game with movies and their descriptions in english for the english class and it turned out great even though I really am too competitive. 

I yell. a little bit.

Miércoles: 

"Y por cuanto no todos tienen fe, buscad diligentemente y enseñaos el uno al otro palabras de sabiduría: sí, buscad palabras de sabiduría de los mejores libros: buscad conocimiento, tanto por el estudio como por la fe" d/c 88:118
Translation:

"And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning even by study and also by faith." Doctrine & Covenants 88:118

Today was not my day. I did not kill it, we only had 5 lessons and the one person we contacted was this kid Nelson that we only contacted because I was following this random trail in the hill side and suddenly we were right up to the door of this house so of course we contacted it.

But when we went grocery shopping we bought cereal! Our cupboard looks like the cupboard that a normal family would have in their house.

And our fridge has hummus in it! I already chopped up some celery and I'm going to tackle a carrot too. its a stuggle with no vegetable peeler.

Jueves:

Doctrine & Covenants 90:24

We have a lesson with Giovanni today and I'm going to figure out a way to explain that a church needs to have authority.....

Pretty sure Giovanni still doesn't understand authority, he thinks his sister is a prophetess...but he gave us oranges before we left!

And he asked what chapter of the Book of Mormon he should read before our next visit. Slowly but surely amiright?

Viernes:

"A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones" Proverbs 17:22

"attitude is everything. Pick a good one."

We were chilling in the apartment when all of a sudden the elders call asking if our smoke detectors worked and I was like ahhhh do we even have smoke detectors?

we dont.

Ooooo and today was the day that we met pasteles de coco. I am absolutely in love. The most delicious baked good to ever be invented. Bonus I made puppy eyes at the garifuna and she sold me the bag for 25 lps instead of 40 #winning #loco4coco I'm bringing home a suitcase filled with pasteles de coco don't worry.

Sábado:

Doctrine & Covenants 93 read it?

For lunch i was making a green salad and Dardón was making a potato salad. I opened the bag of what I thought was going to be spinach. It was not spinach. tbh i have no idea what it was, basically some kind of leafy plant. we ate it in the salad anyways.

We were contacting in the rain today which was good because more people felt sorry for us and let us in.

Domingo:

Doctrine & Covenants 95:12
My companion gave her first talk in the mission! it was great.

A member is visiting from Georgia and she'll be here for a year and the best part is that she wants to feed us! Okay yay. 

We were talking about asking for divine help in church and the hermana givin the class asked for experiences that we wanted to share and I was thinking about how the Lord blessed me with peace and comfort after leaving the mission and coming back and I was like okay maybe I'll share that and then Hermana Castillo was like well last week I was in San Pedro with my daughters and men broke in to the apartment and stuck a gun to my head and told us to take off our clothes and I was praying to God that He would help us and then the men heard something outside, got frightened, and left. 

And I was just like yeah... it's true that we shouldn't compare ourselves to others, but I realized that every single one of theses ladies have gone through so much more than I will ever have to go through, but I get this opportunity right now in this brief time to learn from them.

We hiked up to see Kenya and Edgardo today, they live in a little house that is just like a little cabin, but more than half of it is hanging off of the edge of the mountainside! 

They have an amazing view though. Especially from the window above the kitchen sink, I told kenya I wouldn't mind washing dishes all day with a view like that.

So this was the week! It had its ups and downs but i've never been happier in my mission and with the work that we've been doing. God loves us, we just need to let him bless us. 

Love you mommy

A Valentines Kiss!

                                                                                                                                          

15 February 2016
Martes:

I haven't been writing things that same day lately because we keep getting home so late and I'm so tired that all I want to do is sleep. I was thinking about how with my other companion we spent a lot more time in the house and it was rare if I survived the day without taking a nap after lunch. But no we're working hard, and I know that if we're constant, we will be blessed with success. 

We contacted this Catholic lady that was very short with us and she seemed a little mad. She was washing clothes outside so I asked her if we could help and she said "no!" and I reacted like oh frick, that woked her up a little bit I think and reminded her that we're real people and even though we're used to people treating us unkindly it doesn't mean that we enjoy it. We ended up talking for a long time and explaining our beliefs to each other and even though it started with her being annoyed, it ended with her smiling and giving us big hugs and blessing us with the spirit of the Virgin Mary or something.

Giovanni thought we weren't going to come because it was cold and the power went out, but we taught the lesson with a big ol' flashlight like bosses and he was impressed, wanted to buy a Book of Mormon, and invited us over for lunch on Saturday

Miércoles: 

"leave judgement alone with me, for it is mine, and I will repay" D&C 82:23

I'm basically broke but I bought bread from this one dude so that we could talk to him. Turns out he doesn't live in our area. He also gave us two really gross bananas and he said that those nasty bananas were his lunch and I was like aw that's sad...

Jueves: 

We just had empanadas filled with cheese and ham for dinner it was so fattening but so good, like everything here. 

We only had 5 lessons today, we'll work harder tomorrow, I know it...

Viernes: 

We talked to a dude from Israel today! He speaks like 50000 languages and basically explained to US why the Book of Mormon makes perfect sense. He also told us to preach with authority and with power, that this life is the only opportunity to accept this message and that it wasn't a coincidence that we ran into him today. This crazy artisan Hebrew with conrows and beads to boot. 

Hermana Dardón just made this flan with cranberries and cinnamon basically, it's the bessst, she says it's called man jar?

 I love companions that cook.

Sábado:

"That which is governed by law is also perserved by law and perfected and sanctified by the same." D&C 88:34

10:10 pm, we just finished planning, im too tired to write.

It rained all day. One might think, okay, so it rained the whole day and? Well imagine wet feet and wetter shoes for 9 hours. We were walking around a ton and having appointments fall and even doors slammed in our faces and I stopped myself for a second because I realized that I was grinning and laughing while stomping through puddles that could easily be crossed in a canoe as well. Why am I so happy?? This is absolutely miserable, we haven't been completely dry all we week and we can't wash clothes because they'll never dry outsied and even though there's water everywhere this week, in the apartment there isn't.

But it was a good day! We ended up going to a wedding!

We had some good lessons too, and idk, we're happy.

Domingo: 

Valentine's day! I was surprise assigned to give the class and it turned out fine. A little girl gave me a hershey's kiss. And I thought I wasn't going to get a kiss this valentine's day haha. 

okay well I'm out of time but I love you mommy and send trailmix and questbars when you can!!!

Worth of Souls

Martes 2:

Elder Lucer says that I'm such a princess yet summons us to the barber shop at 8:30 in the morning so that I can help his companion with his English exam while he sits on his little throne getting a trim. The district meeting was a hot mess. Then we went and got pizza and finished grading the english mondules. This elder completed all 24 modules of english required by the mission but still wouldn't go say hi to the gringo tourists sitting at the table next to us.
Talk about ironic. But he will get a certificate at the end of his mission that says he's bilingual so that he can get a better paying job. 

Miercoles 3:

We had a training meeting.

Jueves 4 :

Did a killer workout this morning and when I got dressed I ripped the shoulder on my shirt. Coincidence? I think not #swole #myshirtisrippedtho

After planning today everything went slow. I was glad we got to see Yolanda and sweep up the house for her at least. She has a ton of health problems and recently caught the chinkungunya on top of that and girl I've been there. 

Catholics always say that it's bad to visit other churches. We contacted this lady and she said she'd let us pass by, but she could never go visit a different church and I was like yeah totally because God would get mad right? she wholeheartedly agreed. Makes no sense. 

The ray of sunshine was meeting Giovanni around 8:30 pm. He was very friendly and told us quite frankly that he was glad we stopped by because he was feeling a bit down and needed someone to talk to, but he was surprised at the same time because JW's and others usually only pass by in the early afternoon. And that it was a little weird because Dardón suggested we contact the house, and she's not usually so forward. 

It was a nice spiritual chat and I hope he progresses.

I realized that I need to focus on what each person needs when I conctact. Too often I'm just looking for people to be what I want them to be, which is a good investigator that reads the scriptures and does what I tell them to. But that isn't focusing on their needs, I'm here to help them not to get good numbers in my planner. 

Viernes 5:

"ya que todos tenemos que llevar alguna carga y soportar algún yugo,¿por qué no dejan que sea el mío? Les hago la promesa de que mi yugo es facíl y ligera mi carga" Howard W Hunter

Translation:

“As long as we all must bear some burden and shoulder some yoke, why not let it be mine? My promise to you is that my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Howard W. Hunter (See Matt. 11:28–30.)

We were just walking down the street today and de repente the thought came to my head, this is probably the happiest I've ever been in the mission. LIke, ever. 

I never want another companion. I never want a different area. I just want to work.

I know transfers will happen eventually but I'm happy for now.

We did a service project today! Painting the railings in front of a house this awful green color. And we cleaned out this cannal by the house with these long pitch fork things. ANd well things got a little crazy and mine broke. #oops But I love mindless work. my shoes got all muddy and we got rained on but I enjoyed it. 

Afterwards we walked over to this member's house because Elder Lucero said that he had coconuts that he wanted to give us. We get there and the member says that he also wants us to give a lesson. >So my comp and I did so, since we were the only ones with Books of Mormon #fletch #siempreenmano

it was good tho, and afterwards he gave us coconuts and they had a TON of water and coconut meat inside #delish #locoforcoco

Sabado 6:
"El valor de las almas: Todos los seres humanos son hijos espirituales de Dios, quien se interesa en cada uno de ellos y considera importante a cada uno. Por ser sus hijos, tienen el potencial de llegar a ser como Él. Por consiquiente, grande es el valor de ellos."

Translation: Worth of souls

“All persons are spirit children of God. He cares about each of his children and considers each one important. Because they are his children, they have the potential to become like him. Therefore, they are of great worth.”

Today was a trial. Right now we just got home from a lesson with Dinora and its 10pm. It did not go at all how I had hoped. I told Dardón that the Lord is trying our patience to see if we'll still work hard even with every single (except two) appointment falling through.

Domingo 7:
Morning: I think it's been pouring rain since last night and today we're supposed to hike up into the mountains to visit Diana. #mudmudmud

I feel like we need to find a way to help out this branch of the church here in Tela. It's so disorganized. Nobody seems to know what they're doing.

Afternoon: a branch from a good tree was just inserted here in Tela! At first I thought they were just visiting but no, a family from Tegucigalpa just moved here! They're from a small part and the congregation that they left had an attendance of 300. But they said that starting out, it was only 30 or 40. Like the dad of the family got up and macheted all of us from the pulpit, but if they can help us improve, está bien. This is literally such a blessing for the church here frick! 

Transfers are coming up and I hope that I don't get taken out of here, I can feel things turning around and I want to be here to help 

I want to make these last six months count, you know, sprint to the finish haha 

Joy!

"Joy (in my sense) has indeed one characteristic, and one only, in common with [happiness and pleasure]; the fact that anyone who has experienced it will want it again. 

I doubt whether anyone who has tasted it would ever, if  both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasure in the world; But then joy is never in our power and pleasure often is."

Martes 26 de Enero 2016

The zone leaders came and visited us and so I got to talk to Wilks! We were sitting on the floor and I noticed that my legs are probably the 46th most disgusting things on the planet with a ton of mosquito bites because we didn't have enough money to buy repellent. 

we love coconut water!

Miércoles 27 de Enero 2016

We repped the LDS church in a little service project in the morning, I think I mentioned that we ran into Rafael, a guy we contacted a while ago and tried to teach but it didn't quite work out and he told us about the group that he's in charge of a group that goes around service. We went to go clean out the classrooms in the elementary school by our house and some minor gardening was done as well.

It was funny because I was pulling weeds out of the planter and my comp was like why are you picking those out it's just "monte" , that's normal. I just told her that where I come from, all weeds are bad so we try to get rid of them. #mymommytaughtmegood

Also, we literally only worked for an hour and they decided to send someone for soda and snacks. #catrachos we left early to catch a bus to Ceiba, where we did companion exchanges.  I learned a lot, so maybe that makes up for losing a day of work in our area. I feel like the people in their area are wayyy nicer.

Jueves 28 de Enero 2016

Struggle bus. It was raining on us and we couldn't find the bus stop and then we couldn't find the right bus and we ended up having to take a super expensive bus and we finally got home, soaking wet, a little before 11 and we still had to do weekly planning and I still hate it with a passion but I just kept telling myself that I only have to do it 27 more times and then I'll be free for life.

We went contacting, after a delicious lunch of that taco soup I made last week. And I swear there are parts of our area that are absolutely breathtaking. One, because it's gorgeous and you can see the hills and the curvature of the coastline, and B because the hike literally leaves us breathless. We met this lady named Diana that lives in Campo Hervir and she hikes up and down to go to work every day and it's like 45 minutes of straight up walking. We found out through Golpeando a few puertas that the JW's have absolutely combed over this area.

We even met a señor that was baptized in our church but is now a Jehova's Witness. It was cray.

Viernes 29 de Enero 2016

D&C 59 Fasting= rejoicing

"...do these things with thanksiving, with cheerful hearts and countenances, not with much laughter, for this is sin, but with a glad heart and a cheerful countenance"

As Kendric Lamar once said, I am a sinner, who's probably gonna sin again Lord forgive the things I dont understand

We had 7 lessons today. I know that's not much in this mission but it's a ton for me since I've been back. It's because we've been hiking up and contacting in this part of our area that's absolutely gorgeous, idec that the JWs burned the area, I love it and I like contacting there.

That evening we went to go to visit hermana Soto for the first time adn we get there and there's a TON of people, and they all gathered together and sat down to listen to "the lesson" and Dardón and I were like freaaaaaak what do we do we aren't used to people paying attention to us. We had planned to talk directly with the señora but we ended up having a FHE but it was great and I have faith that we can get them all active. We got home late like 8:45 I felt like an elder today. 

Sábado: 

Was not killin it today. And it's because we stayed in the house and waited for the guy to come fix the door again. 

Dulce's grandma told us to go away and never come back.

We met a guy super nice, that used to be an active member in San Pedro but later came to Tela and saw that it was a hot mess here and decided that the church isn't true anymore, it was super sad and I really don't blame him it's a mess. That's why we need people like him, that are smart and can read, to make the church the way it should be. 

Domingo:

"Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great" D&C 64:33

None of the primary teachers came to church today so they put us in charge but it was actually pretty fun. I liked it more than Relief Society is that bad?

Pdayyy: today we went to a botanical garden today i took a ton of pictures !!!!