The soap opera life of a little town in Honduras . . . or Crazy times on the mission!

Dear Family,

This week was so crazy! First, good news, Jamie, a girl I was teaching in my last area got baptized! She sent me pictures! She is so beautiful and I am so happy for her. 

I'll start with Tuesday. It was a beautiful day. We headed up to A. It is a town about 15 min away on foot. Basically the whole town is from the Church. We went to help La Abuela (a little old lady  who sometimes gives us food and is super crazy and is the reason we don't want investigators to go to Church on fast sunday because she started chanting and all sorts of stuff in her testimony) haul water so she could wash her dishes and everything. She was grumpy with us because we helped her daughter in law, L. shovel dirt last week.  Anyway, we passed her and she was still mad. We went to the house of L. and  asked her to make us lunch. Then we headed over to La Abuela's house. We dropped off our backpacks and looked for her dogs. Her daughter was there and started chatting with us calmly. She bragged about how good of a daughter she is, how she went without a fridge so her mom could have one and she gave her mom a  stove. 

We headed off to get water for La Abuela from the well. We were coming back from the well when we heard her screaming down the road. She got to her house and strarted yelling at us to  drop the water and to see what was happening. We put the water down and ran to her house. Her daughter had broken in and was taking out the fridge and the stove. They were both screaming and insulting each other.  It was awful. Then La Abuela started throwing the stove. Then they almost  knocked over the fridge. Then the daughter attacked her mother. They were hitting each other and the Abuela was pulling her hair. I have never seen anything like this in my whole life. I was so conflicted. On one hand my compnaion was sobbing and the other hand there was a 76  year old lady fighting with her 40 year old daughter. Such barbarity.  My Companion yelled at the  ex  husband of the Abuela to come and help and I just yelled at the  ladies to stop being  animals and to be women. La Abuela wouldn't let go of her hair and my companion set off running. 

I followed her and we both ran next door to L.  crying and screaming for them to help. They didn't do anything. L. lives with the Abuela's son, who is a terrible man, but is nice to us. 

 They didn't want to get involved and we ended up locking the fence and hiding in their house.  Somebody called the police and they showed up. They took a lot of people as witnesses and we hid because we can't get involved in that. 

L. gave us lunch and we couldn't  eat. I really love L. She isn't a member yet , but she is so great to us. 

We eventually left when they had taken everyone to the police station. 

The next day the son invited us to eat fish in his house and we went super sneakily. We are terrified of the Abuela now. She was an animal. I am honestly scared.                      

 

Thursday  my companion completed  4 months in the mission and  Hno. Mejia gave us a MASSIVE box of Corn Flakes to celebrate. I don't know why people love corn flakes so much.  La Abuela showed up to the church building and we left running. Literally.  

 Friday Elvin had his baptism interview and he passed with flying colors. 

 

Saturday we went to Nueva Armenia for the baptism of Elvin.  There is a river and it was so pretty.  I loved it! It was a super big headache to get everyone there but worth it. Elvin invited a friend who left at 3 in the morning to get there on time. That is love. 

Hno. Mejia bought us lunch. He gave me half of a chicken.  That is a lot! 

Sunday we went to Church and afterward  we got a phone call  from L. asking if we could  let her borrow a suitcase. She has literally lived through the infierno with her... boyfriend-husband. He treats her like a dog and  is so awful. He also has 3 other women. He is such a dog. Anyway, they had fought and she was leaving him. They live in A. and  basically all of his family is there and they  treat her really badly. Imagine what I wrote about the Abuela and times that by 10. Her stories are awful and she lives in fear.  We prayed about giving her the suitcase. I didn't  want to do it if it was going to be bad, but we received a SUPER strong assurance that it was the right thing to do. I gave her my biggest suitcase. I am not sure what will happen, but I hope she can have a  better life. I gave  her the Family Proclamation and a jar of Peanut butter. She sobbed tears of gratitude.  

Elvin was sustained a  member of the church and then he was confirmed. It made me smile. I was so happy. 

I love you all! Don't  be mad that I don't have a suitcase... 

I love serving! I love this area! Craziness and all! I love my companion! 

Michelle

Counting Blessings . . .

Dear Family,

(Side note . . . after getting in trouble from both of her parents about teaching people three hours away from the church and walking home on a dangerous road at night, she sent a separate note saying that they only went there because it was a reference and are making arrangements to teach the people in town from now on. We were grateful for that!:-)

Well, this week I am SUPER sore! I shoveled mud and rocks for 3 hours twice this week. And carried it in a wheelbarrow to a road. It felt super good to use a shovel.

I was super grateful for a father who taught me how to use a shovel and gave me a lot of opportunities to practice. Everyone here thinks that Americans don't do any hard work and that we live a pampered life. It may be true at times, but I definitely know how to use a shovel!

We were helping a less active man and his wife (investigator) get rid of the mud and rocks that they disposed of when digging their well. Having a well here is such a blessing. I have never understood the value of water before. I don't need elecricity, but water is NECESSARY! 

 The less active man asked if this would be my first time using a shovel. I just laughed and got to work. I then outworked him and everybody else. Halla!

I also realized that my dad is pretty smart. It is better to work with a huge hat on and gloves. I will show you a picture one day of the hat I wore. It was a massive straw hat that protected me completely from the sun. 

So this is the section of my email that will help you feel grateful:

We have an investigator that has a problem in her mouth and they have had to pull out all of her teeth. She had some taken out every week. Now she doesn't have any left. The poor thing. And she used to be super pretty. The worst part is that they still don't know what the problem is. 

Also, the water comes to our house twice a week... supposedly. Ever since I came it has only come once a week. It is super rough. I can now shower with 2 gallons of water or less. The water never is running water, but we have a pila. Basically it is a big sink. It is about 3.5 ft by 4 ft. Pretty small. We use that water for the whole week. We shower with it, wash our dishes, our clothes and the house. I never thought I would be living this way, but at the same time I love it so much! It is crazy how the misison can change perspective. 

What I am grateful for: 

Elvin, one of our investigators, is progressing super well! And the branch is helping out. He is going to be baptized this saturday. We just need to finish a few lessons, but it should be great! And we might do it in a really pretty river. 

I am also grateful for moto taxis. I don't know how to describe them. They fit like 3 people and they cost about 50 cents for a ride. And a lot of the time they gives rides for free.  

We also had zone conference this week. It was sooo great! And we went to my old area to have it. With my old zone. I didn't really see many people I worked with before, but it was nice to relive the memories.We are going back at the end of the month to go to the temple. I miss the temple so much! I love being there. I can't wait to go whenever I want. 

Well, my companion still struggles with obedience. But, I am finding creative ways to help her. She was pretty good for a few days after zone conference but she still has a hard time getting out of bed. But I make sure she isn't sleeping while she is in there. :-)

Our lack of efficiency KILLS me, but I am also being creative with that. Some people just don't feel the urgency of this work. But I am happy and I am learning a TON!!! 

Love you all! I hope you have a great week.!

Here are some pictures from the mission blog taken at zone conference

Angels round about them . . .

Dear Family,

Mom, I looked in PMG and on pg. 222 in Spanish it talks about the registro de ensenanza in the first paragraph under the box. 

It was so so great to talk to Mom and Dad! AND to see the neighbors for a few seconds (Purtymuns and Sheffields). Going on a mission sure can make a person grateful for their family!! 

So the other day we went on a trek to teach a lesson. It was a 3 hour trip. We went with a member. It was ridiculous. But we found a lot of people to teach in that area. And they are pretty positive. One of them was a pastor. I have always wanted to teach a pastor and baptize him. But it took longer than we thought and we had to return home in the nighttime. I hate returning in the nighttime because it is a lot more dangerous and the road is solo and basically it is just a bad idea. But we had to go home, so we had to do it. 

Anyway, we started going home and a truck passed us. It slowed down and told us that we should pick up a few rocks to protect ourselves because there were a few men smoking in our path. We got a little nervous. The truck continued, but then stopped and went in reverse. A man got out of the truck and walked with us to protect us. They got us to the main road and past the smoking men. 

Basically it was an answer to a prayer. We were dumb to be in that situation, but we were grateful to be protected. 

We challenged a man to be baptized and he was super excited to say yes. He is one of the chosen that has been waiting. His name is Javier and we are going to start teaching his wife soon. She is super nice, but super busy. We just need to marry them first. It bugs me that no one is ever married. But I am excited for their wedding! They don't know about it yet...:-)

We only get water twice a week. It is rough. But I feel like I will be a good camper after the mission. 

Saturday we celebrated El Dia de la Madre with another branch. It was super funny. We went to Pollolandia and ate there. Its more ghetto than Burger king. It made me laugh thinking what would happen if a ward in the states did the same thing. I am sure there would be a lot of complaining. But here they were so incredibly grateful. 

There were only supposed to be 15 people. They called a 15 seater bus for us. Instead of 15 people, we had 26. And by some miracle we all fit. My compnaion and I opted to take a real public bus home. 

I also got a package from Kristen!!! It was so great! i had to defend it from the elders, but my scowl scared them off. IT always works. I did share with my companion.  

Love you all. Can't wait to Skype again for Christmas... 

Love,

Michelle

Guess Where I Am Now???

Dear Family,

Okay, here is the big news, I am in SABANA GRANDE. Big sheet. Who comes up with these names???

My compnaion is Hna. Franco form Guatemala. We both would like some tacos from Mexico. She is pretty great. She is coming out of her training and her trainer didn't mention ANYTHING about obedience, so it is going to test me like crazy. I want her to love me, but I am not willing to give up being obedient for that. I am praying a lot to know how to handle the situation in the best way. 

We are in a branch here, I am so happy. 45 people came Sunday. Here is the best part. The president, 19 years old. RS Pres, 21 years old. Mission ldr, 18. His asistant, 17. YW Leader 22. The best best part, they are all turning in their mission papers. They only need the interviews. Almost all of the leadership will be gone in a few months. 

We definitely have our work cut out. Leadership. Families. Priesthood.

This area is HUGE!!! It is a tiny town with a ton of aldeas (small villages). We hike mountains all day long. SUPER THIGHS!!! 

I am in the same stake I was in before so I am super excited because I will get to see the people from Roble Oeste. And, Hno Mejia, the one that reminds me of an Italian mob boss, is the sister leader trainer in charge of this rama. And my comp form the mtc is in the sister town, so i get to see her all of the time. YAY!!!! 

There is no food in the house. Nothing. And the little that there is is terribly unheathly, but we are going to Teguc. today to buy stuff. We also almost never have water. We have to haul it and carry it up to our apt on the second story. 

Whenever we ask people if there is anything that we can do for them, they make us haul water. My traps are so sore. I have developed a testimony of the necessity of water. I am fine without electricity, but I need water. 

I shower out of a bucket. IT is soooooooooooooooo cold. But, it is character building. The houses here are nicer than my first area, but our apt is way worse. 

The apt was beyond dirty when I got there. Ewww. I didn't know sisters could be so disgusting. 

But I already love the people here so much. It makes serving here so much easier. We did divisions yesterday. My comp found a family and I found 2 drunk men who asked if it was okay if they came to Church if they only went because they thought I was pretty. Luckily one of them doesnt live in this area and the other one lives far away. My testimony of the word of wisdom continues to grow. 

We have one good investigator. Named Elvin. He thinks that is his name. That is always nice. 

I ate fish this week. Still had its head on--with big, sharp teeth. And skin. It was pretty great. Apparently my standards are changing like crazy. 

Love you all! Talk to you soon! 

Chelle

Where will she go next?

Dear Family,

This week was good.

My companion finally came out of denial that she was going to be in this area for a long time and started to work. I was so happy. Missionary work is so much easier when we are team. It is hard to drag. Super hard. This week, she even walked faster.  Sometimes I even made her run. But she wants to lose weight, so she was grateful. I like doing missionary work with urgency. But we really do get along well.

We found 12 new people this week and 3 new families. That is more than we have found in our 6 weeks together. It felt good. I love findng and teaching familes.

I am writing a bit late because we spent the morning translating for La Brigada Medical. Translate that one.:-)It is a group of doctors that help the people here get the care they need to turn in their mission papers. They travel through central america. A lot of dentist and oral surgeons. 

 It was super fun. Granted, Gospel vocabulary is a lot different then dentist vocabulary. Way different. But I learned a lot of new words.

For some reason I have not had the need to learn the word swallow. They wanted the patient to swallow and I had no idea. I basically told him, "you have liquid in your mouth. You need to get that liquid to go down. Win moment. Then I asked another elder how to say it. I also know how to say filling, wisdom teeth, crown, and who knows what. Maybe I will do it for a living.

Everyone was super impressed that we were missionaries. They said that Honduras looked so scary. But they have no idea what it is really like. It is super chill. Thats not completely true, but we are protected a ton.

The best part was that I saw one of my recent converts there starting his medical stuff for his papers. He will have to wait until Feb, but at least it shows he is working to go on a mission. Yay! 

I got to see my last Hna. Clark last night. (former companion) It was so nice to see her. I miss her a ton.

We are teaching a girl named Jamie. She is so great and she speaks English. One of the ex missionaries (sister) brought her to church. Member missionary work is so much easier and faster. She will be baptized this month. She doesn´t know yet, but I do. Too bad I won´t be here to see it.

I am nervous for transfers. I have barely told anyone here that I am leaving because I don´t want them to give me more food. Latins show their love through food.

I realized today that my social skills have improved a ton. But there is a catch. Only in Spanish. I had thought that they would improve in both languages, but I was wrong. I have no idea what to say to white people. But with the Latins I can talk for DAAAAYYYYYYSSSSSS. They are so interesting. I really love the people.

Basically I am just super nervous for transfers. Super. I feel like there is a challenge coming. The last time I felt a lot of peace. This time I feel the peace before the storm. Pray for me.

Love you lots! 

Chelle

Surviving Semana Santa

Hello family. This week was Semana Santa.

We passed it well. We volunteered to do service for a lot of the people in our ward and a few investigators.(everyone leaves town so it is hard to teach) I seriously love serving. We didn´t have a lot of lessons, but the ones we did we taught a lot about Christ and the Atonement. I am so grateful to be serving in this season.

It was a bit hard because you have to have a lot of self sustaining motivation. Luckily my cup of motivation never runs dry.

My companion found out last night that she is going to train. That means I am leaving Roble Oeste and my 2 washing machines and my 2 dryers and everything that is good. I hope I go to a little town that doesn't have water or energy. Give me an adventure!

I officially passed the deadest parts of the year in the deadest area. Christmas and the Semana Santa. But when the people are here in this area, I love it.

We had intercambios this week. It was good to get out of my area and breathe. I feel a lot of stress there because I do all of the scheduling.

Kat, I met your old ZL from Guate. Elder... umm... he has  a lazy eye and is from Honduras. Carlos is his first name. Anyway, he was nice and told me a million times how great you are. I agreed.

We had baptism interviews this week for  Lourdes, Anthony y Dayana. They were a reference from the STake President. It is a mom and her two kids. They are so great. The mom can't read.

They showed their conversion this week. There weren't any buses or taxis from their town, so they walked 2 and a half hours to get there. Dedication. When I found out I went and bought them some  food and water and juice and then we paid for a taxi for them to go home. The poor thing carried her 2 year old the whole way. I felt SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO bad. so bad.

They were baptized Sunday at 7am. It was way early. I want a nap. It went super well. And they won´t fall away because they are friends of the Stake President. Halla.

We served the Temple President and his wife. It was really weird, but I loved it. We were in their living quarters. I felt so priveleged. We swept their porch and ironed their clothes. Then she fed us a super good dinner. Their view is the temple. I took photos, but my memory card has a bit of a virus. Whoops. I can´t send pictures.

We had an activity for all of the recent converts and investigator families. It was great. There was a chorus and we watched a few videos about Christ and the Atonement and recent converts shared their testimonies. It was super powerful to hear their testimonies.

Well, I think that is about it.

Have a great week! Love you all! 

A little fun in the sun. . . and lots of hard work

Hello dear family. Sorry for the short note last week The energy kept going in and out. Mostly out. At least Roble Oeste (where she is working) is better.

So this week was... a week.

Last Monday we had the activity for all of the sisters. It was perfect. There was a spiritual part in the beginning, then talents, then we played outside, then we ate. It was great.

It was wonderful because something clicked in my head when Hna. Fortuna was speaking to us. It was something completely unrelated, but It helped me a lot. She said super quickly that in our missions we will feel closer to Christ than any other time in our lives. And something inside me clicked. I have been kind of burdened down by the burdens of other people.

But we have also been studying the atonement as a mission. I have been looking for different ways to apply the atonement in my life. I understand more of the atonement, but I wanted to really FEEL it. Anyway, it clicked for me in the activity that one way to understand the atonement right now for me is to help other people carry their burdens. Christ always invites us to give Him our burdens, or He can make our burdens lighter. I realized that right now I can learn more about my Savior and what He did as I do something similiar. I can´t take away the burdens of other people, but I can try to lessen them.

I am not sure if that made sense, but I loved it.

Also, God chastened me good last week. We were watching conference and the prophet was about to speak and I was watching in English. There was an elder in there who I just don´t really like because he lacks maturity in every way and is quite crude and complains 24/7. Anyway he was being himself and I was ready to give him a piece of my mind so that he would be reverent in the session, but I had the impression not to because it would really hurt him.

10 seconds later the prophet got up and talked about love and kindness. I was SUPER grateful that I hadn't said anything. Then I repented of my thoughts.

So we found some athiests. It is quite curious really. I was looking through the area book and the other sisters had invited them to las puertas abiertas del templo hace un ano. (Temple open house a year ago) And then later I contacted them in front of a Pulperia (tienda). They aren´t very positive, but it is interesting.

 Anyway, our mission president is planning a fireside for Easter about the Atonement that we can invite families to. We have been practicing a coro for awhile. Anyway, we told them that we had been practicing in a chorus for this activity and they committed themselves to going to it. We should tell them a little more about it, but i really want them to come. They are so nice. I want to be their friend after the mission. Anyway, I am stoked.

Oh, my companion makes good food. Speaking of which, she made sushi this week. It was my first time eating sushi and I liked it. Addicted. Not really, but I enjoy it. 

My experience in the RS=(she shared an experience with her grandfather and so I asked her if she would also share it with me--so here it is.)

So one week we were talking about Joseph Fielding Smith in RS and they were talking about how great of a father he was and how loving and kind he was with his children and I raised my hand and said that I wanted to add my testimony of that. As his great granddaughter I have had the opportunity to receive the blessings of his kindness. I said my Grandpa Mitt, was one of the nicest, most loving people I had ever met and it was clear to see that he learned a lot from his father. And because he received that tradition from his father, my own mother also received it. I testified of the many times I have seen my mother and grandfather reach out in love to their family and friends. How they strive to teach their children and grandchildren gospel principles. And how grateful I was for my great grandfather who continued traditions of love and service. The spirit was quite powerful.

They asked me this sunday too to share my testimony of Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith. More than anything I shared my testimony of parents who instill gospel truths in their children and that from a young age I had a testimony of Joseph Smith and the Restoration. I never doubted. I also bore my testimony to the sisters that their children can have relationships like Joseph and Hyrum. I mentioned how my older siblings are my best friends and even though I am the youngest, there is still a lot of respect and love. So that was it.

Mom, here is my advice for the sister leader trainers. I asked all of the sisters in the house. (I had asked her this question)

 

1. Feed the sisters. During my first week, I had a super good meal with the SLT and it motivated me to continue on. En serio. I started cooking from that point on. Another time the sister didn´t feed me ANYTHING or barely talk to me and it wasn´t an uplifting experience in any way. (They do most of their own cooking so if you are on an exchange with another sister you depend on them to provide the food. or at least give you an opportunity to cook something)

2. Humility. They are there to serve and uplift. They should not have the attitude that they are going to turnaround the area in one day all thanks to their presence. The sisters are trying their hardest. Criticism is not an attribute of Christ.

3. If the sisters have planned to challenge someone to be baptized, but SLT should not rob them of the chance to do it. She is there to support. I understand that sometimes they feel the need to do it, but there are a lot of resentful sisters in our house. They can urge the sister to do it, but it will be a more positive experience for the sister to do it in her area.

4. More than anything, the sister wants to feel love. Its hard to be with someone 24/7. We need a break and we just want an outpouring of love from our leaders. It makes it easier for us to follow their example and advice when we respect and love them.

5. The SLT should have unity between their own companionship. I was with 2 SLT who didn´t have unity and it was ugly. One completely dominated because she had more experience. She was the one who always called us. After I noticed, I asked her  why she didn´t let her companion use the phone. After that, they shared. You could just tell it was rough for them. 

Well, time is running out. Sorry I am so slow at writing. Love you all! 

Pictures:

The first one is the best returned missionary ever!! She served in Mesa and knows Aunt Judy and Aunt Jackie. And she gives us tons of references. The second picture is of my companion. I know I look super burned but I think it is the lighting.