Hola familia! 

First, shout out to mom who wins on the letter front. You are the best. I seriously love mail so much! I am also really grateful you send me Grandpa´s emails. They are so fun to read. I also got a surprise letter from Sis. Abbott. It was so great. It was perfect in every way. She is so nice. I am excited her son is going to Tegucigalpa. Also, Kristen, your jokes were more than timely. They saved the world from my wrath... or just made me smile at the end of a really long day. I also got a letter from Camille. It was so great to hear about her life. Keep them coming

This week has been crazy. I feel like nothing has happened, but at the same time everything has happened. 

Culture: 

Yesterday was Dia de Independencia. There were no fireworks. I don´t get it. But there was a parade. You may be thinking, how fun a parade. Nope. It started right before church so we had to race to church so we didn´t get stuck behind it. And it was all of the kids from all of the schools in Campamento so we have been listening to them practice for the last month. I don´t like drums. 

Last Monday we helped a member make every possible food from elote. It was so fun. I am going to own in the kitchen after the mish. I now KNOW how to make tamalitos and fritas. There is other stuff she made from it, but I don´t know how to make them. I love the members. It was with Balbina who is my Camille. 

People: We have been singing ´´Una familia Dios me Dio´´ all week long. That´s right! We were blessed with a familiy to teach! This is huge! And they came to Church on sunday and said it was what they were waiting for and basically they are perfect. We might have problems with ´´Obedecer y Honrar las Leyes´´ because they live in the US, but the Branch President made that rule quite clear in his first conversation with them. Thanks for biting that bullet. They are wonderful. 

We also might have another baptism this saturday. The goal is to have one every week in September. It is a young girl who has sisters who are members. 

Spiritual: 

Basically we would be useless without the Spirit. This week I had the strangest impression to teach about tithing with a really strong member who might be the only full tithe payer. But it turned out to be just what she needed. She was feeling way lonely and basically ended up pouring out her whole life to me. By the end my companion was sobbing and I was comforting them both. I really don´t like emotions. But it was a tender experience. 

We also saw the baptism of Diana.See was the one who had the date for the 17 de Agosto, but we had to work REALLY hard with her. It was a miracle that she was baptized. 

I have come to understand Ether 12:27 better. I am truly starting to understand my weaknesses. But instead of being overwhelmed by them, they are simply a way for me to use the Atonement in my life and become stronger. 

We also went to the temple. 2 zones shared a bus. It was so great. And beyond perfect timing. I was so so grateful. 

Funny: 

We made a mess out of the hymns on sunday. During the first one, my companion threw off the hymn book and in the second I walked off the stand before the last verse. Yay us. 

I also had to jump over the wall again for the baptism. We need a key. 

Challenge: This week the biggest challenge has been that we need to organize our branch better. After Presidente visited us last sunday he made the elders the new secretaries in the branch and as a result we now have to visit all 300 of the branch members. We will see how long it takes. We are using the members a lot. I am slowly ocnvincing them it is like a scavenger hunt. yay! No one has addresses here. They are just hints. ´´ house de tierra a bajo pulperia´´ 

Love you all! Hope everything is going well! 

Michelle

This Week in Honduras . . .

MY FIRST BAPTISM!!! THis baptism was a miracle and about a million things went wrong during the process, but the girls got baptized and all in all it was a success! And I am wearing the scarf from the ¨Sisterhood of the Traveling Scarf¨ Yay Miracles!!

 This is me awkwardly standing with the girls. Gethzel is on my right and Kelin is on my left. They are angels. The rest of their family are members. 

 THis is basically the love of my life. She reminds me a lot of Carly. Her name is Arianna. She calls me Hna. Una and my companion Hna Dos. 

This is what happens when you live in C and the branch president is the only person with a key to the baptismal font. And he lives 45 min away. I hopped over the wall into the font to be able to fill it in time. 

A Weird Week

Why hello familia. This has been a super strange week. So weird. But it went by fast, so I guess that is nice. I hit my 3 month mark on the mission on the 29th. I am 1/6 of the way done with my mission. I have never felt more of an urgency in my life! There are so many people that need to hear the gospel. 

This is probably going to be the most spastic letter because I didn´t organize it at all. At all....

We are teaching 2 girls named Gethzel and Kelin. They are part of a family of all members. They were totally ready to be baptized this last Saturday. Unfortunately Mother Nature wanted them to wait another week. Oh puberty. It was a fun one to explain to the elders. It was even better when they kept asking why it was impossible to have it the next day. The got hit with ¨Blunt Michelle¨ poor things. The girls were super sad. So we did what every sister missionary would do. We bought cookies and ate them together. Yay girls! 

Thursday night we received a call that we had a zone meeting the next day and we had intercambios after with the sister leader trainrs. My district also had intercambios with the zone leader and they wanted to visit a family with us. Yay. Therefore, I, the nueva, would be in my area, directing the sister leader trainer, my district leader and my zone leader. ¨Welcome to Campamento, I have only been here for 6 weeks¨. But it worked out pretty well. I didn´t have to say much in the lesson. All of the leaders arepretty new at their callings (all have just over a week) so it was interesting. We taught a super powerful lesson about the Book of Mormon. The family was feeling the Spirit and I was about to challenge them to baptism...then the zone leader started talking about the Word of Wisdom out of nowhere. I was mildly confused, but I guess we can try again next time. We also were there for over an hour and so we were late for the baptismal interviews for Gethzel and Kelin. But, the elders and the hna were super impressed by how fast I could make them walk. 

Overall it was a great experience. I am a big fan of intercambios. It is so motivating! 

Funny stories: 

1. Crazy man number 1. We contacted into some girls one night and they were really receptive. We went back the next night and their dad was there. Oh man. He had a bible that had a Hebrew title but the rest was Spanish. Basically he was convinced that the Hebrew name for God was the only one acceptable and we were pagans when we called him anything else. Also, God doesn´t have enough power to appear to Joseph Smith. Then my companion had the faith to ask him to pray in the end and he basically called us Satan worshippers and prayed that their family would in some way be able to benefit from our visit. 

2. Crazy man number 2. During the baptismal interviews for Gethzel and Kelin we gave a Church tour to their friends that came with them. They were study partners from the school. We were in the chapel and were talking about how baptism and the Santa Cena help us become clean. Then one of the guys went off on a rant about how he has only been drunk once, but when he got drunk he almost killed his mother but an angel stopped him. Basically I have an increased testimony of the Word of Wisdom

3. We were teaching a lesson yesterday and I was bearing testimony about Adam and Eve and how it was a great thing that they partook of the fruit. My testimony came out a little jumbled. I said that I was really grateful that Adam and Eve got hungry in the Garden so that we can be on Earth. Everyone laughed and I played it off well. And then at the end of the lesson the mom committed to being baptized at the end of this month. She just needs to get married first because NO ONE IS MARRIED IN HONDURAS. 

Love you all! Pray for me!