week 13

This week was good. I'm really exhausted because i have been sick since Friday. So i might not write too much this week. I am happy to be here in the mission and to be doing missionary work.

This past weekend was general conference and I thought it was great. We went to all the sessions and I even got to see three of the four in English! The kind stake leaders set up an "english" room for all the people who wanted to watch in english (aka just all the american missionaries in our zone). Sunday morning we watched in Spanish in our ward building because one of our investigators joined us (A)!!! She enjoyed the conference and had so many questions which is amazing. I really hope she gets baptized =]

A not about being sick: It was so intense because I was feeling awful all weekend and I knew I had a fever but just kept working because there really is no time to stop when there's so much work to do (and I reallllly didn't want to miss ANY of conference. On Sunday it got super bad in the evening session and I pretty much just slept through most of the session (well I was going in and out). I ended up waiting until the session ended and we were home and then took my temperature, called the infermera, and ended up sleeping the rest of the evening. 

Weather: its been raining like crazy. the roads are rivers. and then sometimes theres no rain and no clouds and its hot as ever haha

Language: still learning. Spanish is pretty easy but its the pronunciation that i struggle with. I have a very american accent and its horrible haha.

Well, my week was really normal. a lot of walking around and a lot of teaching about the restoration and about the book of mormon and the plan of salvation and the gospel of jesus christ. also a lot of teaching people how to pray. =]

love you guys! 

send me letters.

its always raining and by the time we get home it looks like i jumped in a pool.

walking home

about 15 minutes before we took this picture the water was three times as high

feverish at 38.5 deg. celc

this morning watching the zone play futbol - sat out because of a fever. trying to keep my strength so we can work later.
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Week 11 (44?)

Hola Familia,

This past week went by really fast (relatively of course, because a week is a week).

My companion and I have been working hard in every way. On Monday we had a noche de hogar (family home evening) with a family in the ward. this husband is a retrun missionary and in the bishopric. he shared some mission experiences and helped us feel really encouraged to try our hardest. it was a great way to start out the week. 

On Friday we had interviews with the mission president and it was really good. I received a lot of guidance and support. I feel more confident in my ability to train, to work hard, and to be happy. Oh, also during the interview I found out that my release date in June 7, 2016 (if anyone was wondering exactly when I'll be going home. --- about 8 more months)

Weather update: It hasn't been tooo hot and it has been raining a little more than usual. :)

Spanish update: Improving. A lot of ups and a few downs. I am a lot more confident than I was two and a half months ago, though. =]

sept 14 - sept 20

this past week we worked a lot with members and tried/succeeded in finding a lot of new possible investigators. I feel good about all the effort we put into the work.

for my experience this week I want to share about a lesson we had with one investigator, A. First of all, I think it is important to say that A always reads the folletos (pamphlets?) and always has questions, which is a good sign that she will progress. So in our first lesson, we taught the Restoration and challenged her to read the Book of Mormon. Our second visit was on, I think, Thursday, and we started out by verifying that she read and prayed. We asked if she had received an answer about the Book of Mormon. In this crucial moment I was silently praying and anxious about the answer. There were a few quiet seconds and then she replied, "I do believe that there were prophets here in the Americas and that they prophesied of Jesus Christ." (AHHHHH). and then she explained that she did believe their wrote the book of Mormon and that it is true. Then during the lesson we were reading scriptures as we taught the plan of salvation and at one point we were going to read a scripture and she turned to the page and had already highlighted the verses (because she had read the pamphlet before the lesson and even looked up the scriptures!)

It was such a great moment. the spirit was so strong. I know that as a missionary, as i am obedient and Humble I will be guided and helped in knowing where to go, who to talk to, and what to say. We had walked by As house hundreds of times but one day we felt like we should knock on her door and because we followed the spirit we were able to find someone who was prepared to listen and accept the message we share. Honestly I feel humbled to know that the Lord has enough confidence in me to find those who are prepared and that we are all blessed as we follow the guidance of the spirit. 

Thank you for all the support and love! I really appreciate it!

love, Sam

I lost my Agenda so I had to make my own for a day.

I got a new bed (finally!!).

Tigre, the cat of a family in the ward.

Today watching the zone play volleyball.
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Semana 9 (Otra Vez) / Semana 42?)

This past week was very interesting. A lot of normal missionary stuff happened and a few un-normal stuff happened too.

On tuesday morning around 2AM I woke up with a sharp pain in my right knee. I couldn't move my leg at all because of the pain. The pain didn't go away all morning and we left to work as normal but I only made it to lunch before I had to call the mission nurse. I spent most the the day in the house resting. Two days later we went to the doctor and she said I have tendonitis. So right now I am taking medicine for it and it it still hurts by this saturday I will have to go back to the doctor. 

So for the rest of the past week we have been trying to do work close together (appointments closer together) so that I don't have to walk as far or as fast. It has been pretty good but a few days were a little bit hard.

Spanish update: good. slowly but surely I am still progressing. I understand more every day and am able to say a little bit more every day as well. 

Weather update: hot. it rained a few days ago and my companion and I didn't have umbrellas or anything. one member made us ponchos out of garbage bags so we wouldn't get too wet. haha. 

We are still working hard and teaching and finding. my quest to become more humble continues. Although, it has slowed down a little bit. this is because as a mission, we are studying about ten topics in the guia para el estudio de las escrituras, which doesn't exist in the english book of mormon. We are studying a lot about family history and how to teach everyone about the gospel through talking about family history. it it really great and my testimony is growing a lot as i study the assigned topics. 

One experience from this week: We were having a small lesson with a member after we ate lunch at her house. My companion and I hadn't planned the lesson so we weren't sure what direction it would go in. After the prayer and introduction and all, I decided to ask the sister to recount a spiritual experience she'd had in her week. Her eyes lit up and she told us that since she had been praying for a few days that someone would come to her house and ask her about a spiritual experience she had had that past week. She said she wasn't sure who would come and answer her prayer but that she really needed someone to talk to.  She told us of her experience and about how her testimony in family history and temple work had grown. To me, my testimony of following the promptings of the spirit grew. I wasn't sure what I was going to say when we started the lesson. But because I followed the spirit, I was able to ask an inspired question. A question that this sister had been waiting for. I know that as I continue to have faith and as I am obedient and strong, I will always receive the help I need in order to help others. 

i love you all. 

write me letters. write me emails. all the time please. 

love, sam

(the night we walked around in trash bags because of the rain)

Watching the zone play soccer all morning  (I wrote you all letters so expect those in about a month)

(One hermana has this tiny little book of mormon and i would really love it if someone could buy me one and send it to me. i think they sell them on the lds store website)

we all ate pizza for lunch. i honestly dont know how much more little ceasers pizza i can eat.

Listening to one of our zone leaders tell jokes as we eat.

emailing!
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week 8 otra vez

eight weeks wow

this past week was a very normal week. no exciting conferences or trips. we worked hard and have new investigators. i feel good about the work we did. 

One experience from this week:

We were walking down the street just trying to talk to people on the street because one of our appointments fell through. so i thought we should try a house that we'd already visited in the past with my former companion. so we walk over and there is someone sitting outside. two people actually. we introduce ourselves as misionaries and explain a little bit about what we would like to share with them. one of the women doesnt want anything to do with us and leaves the yard and drives away. we had been standing outside on the sidewalk outside of the gated yard but then the ramaining girl invites us in and we taught a whole lesson and the spirit was strong. \she invited us back to her house for two days later. so two days later we return and we teach all of the restoration. what was really great was that she read all of the folleto we had left with her and had questions about prophets, authority of priesthood, joseph smith, and the book of mormong. it was so inspiring to find someone who really was ready to accept our invitation to learn more and even accept the invitation to be baptized. she has a bptism date and we are working hard to help her feel ready for that date. the whole experience really strengthened my testimony of the importance of finding and teaching by the spirit. i know that as i am obedient i will recieve the help i need in order to find those read to be taught. 

honduras is hot as ever and im trying to be grateful for the weather even when it feels so hot i cant walk anymore. i was a bit deydrated this week so i have been trying to drink more water. i dont want a repeat of what happened last summer when i couldnt get out of bed for a whole week because of extreme dehydration.

i am happy to be here and to be working hard in la obra misional. right now my biggest challenge is being a good trainer and helping my companion understand the way the mission work and how to teach and plan. i think im doing a decent job at that. 

spanish update: someone comented today that i dont have an accent. HA. its a nice complement but i don't believe it. i';ve been working hard on improving my accent to not sound so gringa. Slowly I think it's improving; still struggling a lot though. But I study every day so don't worry. I think I have what you'd call a conversational vocabulary, which is good enough but I would like to improve to master the big grammatical stuff. [post-mission comment: I remember that around this same time I started getting a lot of random complements about my accent and my grammar, and I got super self-conscious and started to be very self critical and didn't want to admit I was actually nearly-fluent]

i love you all

love, sam

this morning watching the zone play dodgeball. im still dehydrated and didnt want to over exhert myself.

a view of tegucigalpa from a hill near our house

 

hna p. and me (you can see the top of the church building in the background between our heads)

i honestly dont know how to flip this around. but the street we live on.
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Week 5 (Otra Vez)

Hola Familia!

How has your week been?! My week was pretty good. The Sun was SO STRONG this past week. I felt like most of the days it was so strong that it felt like i was being pricked by needles. (You'd be proud, Mom, I've been diligent about sunscreen)

This past Saturday I completed ONE MONTH of being back here in Honduras. Time is going by so quickly but slowly at the same time. I can't explain it haha. 

One of the things (other than spanish) that I struggle with here in the mission is talking to people on the street. I can talk to people just fine in lessons in their homes, and usually don't struggle with words or with feeling embarrassed about my language skills. But with talking to strangers on the street I do have a little bit of pena and my companion usually is the one to approach people. Anyway, yesterday estabamos abriendo la boca in la calle and we were walking down a street in our area and my companion was walking forward but I felt like I was being pushed/led to the side to a house. So i walked to the front gate of the house and I saw a woman sitting in the shade. I started talking to her and waved my companion over. My companion knows I struggle with talking to people in the street so I knew she was going to just let me talk. So i started talking to the lady about her religious background all. and then instead of just introducing her to the gospel and inviting her to church I started to teach a full lesson. Since we were just standing in front of her house I kept it short but I taught all of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in about five minutes, invited her to Church, to pray about the Priesthood, and invited her to be baptized. I didn't worry at all about the words I needed to say because somehow they just all came out naturally and it was amazing. We made an appointment to teach the hermana again later this week and I hope that she can progress and be receptive. It truely was a great spiritual moment and it has inspired me to follow the promptings of the spirit more often and to be not afraid of talking to people in the streets.

Spanish Update: A few people this week have mentioned how much my spanish has improved already and about how I am starting to open up more. I think they're both related. that I feel a little bit more comfortable talking because my spanish is getting better. I am trying hard to learn from what I hear and also to practice diligently every morning before we leave the house. 

Later this month, on the 22nd, our mission has the great opportunity to have conference with member of the 12 Apostles (we don't know who yet). I am really excited. Especially since this will be the 3rd time I've had the opportunity to hear a talk by an apostle in the past two years. I hope that I can find inspiration in the talk that will be given and that 

it will help me in my journey to be more humble as a missionary.

I love you all and hope that you're having a great week!

please send me letters/packages!

love, Sam

=]

my companion and me

we had baleadas for lunch and i ate half before remembering to take a picture. feat. coke.
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