Week 23 (June 16, 2014)

Week 17 in Honduras

Hola everyone,

This past week was good. My companion has been sick for almost a full week now. Which is not fun, but we have had a lot of fun times this week. One of our investigators, Betuel, is progressing really fast. he has read all of the folletos (pamphlets) for each lesson and read all of the intro pages to the book of Mormon, two chapters in the book of Mormon, and even looked up answers to his own questions using the guia de las escrituras (kind of like the bible dictionary that they have in the Spanish BOM). He is, pretty much, teaching himself. He always has questions and wants us to give him more chapters to read. he says he is going to come to church this next Sunday. It’s great.

It has been raining a lot here in Honduras, when it rains it rains harder-than-hard haha. It is almost impossible to teach because everyone has tin roofs so we can’t hear each other talk. But it’s been good, we played futbol with our zone this morning that was fun. Do you want to know what else is still fun?....washing clothes by hand haha just kidding.

I hope all is well in the United States and that you guys are having a good summer. SEND ME LETTERS!

You can also use dearelder.com to send letters tooo.

Sam
sent june 16, 2014

I saw Hna. Young at Zone Conference!

Zona Ciudad Nueva 

Taking a Picture with an elder who admired the craftmanship of our dresses made by Hna. Saldate's sister-in-law (photobombed by our zone leader, elder boe)

we arrived ready to win. arrived late but looked awesome. they ended up playing more at the church.

Week 21 (June 2, 2014)

Week 15 in Honduras

Hello!
This week was a full week but not of the normal stuff.
I was sick for five days, and didn’t start leaving the house until Friday!
It was a full week of sleeping. I did not have dengue, which is a good thing. I did have heat exhaustion and extreme dehydration. Not fun. I am all hydrated now and not so exhausted haha. I am all better and back to doing normal Missionary stuff every day, which is nice, because being sick as a missionary is not as fun as being sick at home. No watching TV or reading or even the comfort of a blanket. It’s too hot to use blankets here. I slept in a hammock everyday at a member’s house so my companion could go out with a different member to keep visiting our investigators. I am glad to be better, though.

On Sunday we had an event, after church at one of the ward buildings here in Choluteca, for all our investigators here in the South. Our mission president and his wife gave messages and there were musical performances. It was really cool. We didn’t have any investigators come which was a disappointment but we had Alex, who was baptized a few months ago, Lizzy (who just turned 8 and is going to get baptized), and Francisco who is a member who helps when we need someone to come on visits with us. It was nice, we all enjoyed it.

I saw Hermana Young while we were there! It is always super fun to see Hermana Young and Hermana Bleak when I can. I miss them so much! We had so much fun when we were companions.

On the bus ride to the event, a butterfly flew into my hair! That was fun. On the way home it rained hard and we walked all the way home from the middle of town to our house in the rain. I was cold and tired the rest of the night haha. And there was no power. But it was fun. Overall it was a good week.

I felt a little homesick but it was another good week.

Hermana Jaquez
sent 6/02/14

Week 11 (March 24, 2014)

Week 5 in Honduras

This week was full of ups and downs and new experiences. We taught people and got rejected a few times and walked probably 100 miles. One of the hardest things is being right next to someone all the time. I know it is for a reason and I am so grateful for my companion. But I kind of want a moment to myself haha.

On Wednesday we had a meeting in Tegucigalpa with all the trainers and new missionaries who have been here since January. It was really great to go to Tegucigalpa so we could leave this hot weather. Ha-ha. The meeting was good and we learned a lot, and best of all....guess who was there? Hermana Bleak and Hermana Young! It was pretty much the best to be able to see them again. Obviously we spent the entire time together. It was refreshing to hear about all the crazy stuff they have been doing and to know that they were feeling some of the anxieties that I am ha-ha: Like bucket showers and getting sick from drinking pila water. hahahahaha.

We ended up staying the night in Tegucigalpa, by the time it was time for us to leave the bus would have gotten to Choluteca at 9:30pm and then we would have no bus or anyway to get us to our area and it wouldn’t have been safe for us we got permission from the president to stay with a family that my companion taught in her last area. Their house is amazing, it was COLD! and it had a shower. They live in the mountains in Tegucigalpa. It was so beautiful. We visited a few families while we were there. Overall the trip was great the trip back was another story...four hours in a bus with no air conditioning and it kept breaking down. ughhh. I almost died. We got back so late in the morning and missed most of our zone meeting too.

The rest of the week was good. We taught a lot of people and walked a lot! The thing about my area is that it is allllll walking. It’s a small town but big enough that it is exhausting walking to and from places.

One of the most spiritual experiences of my time here in Honduras happened yesterday (Sunday). We taught a family, inactive members the wife is not a member. We have been trying to teach her but she has been really unreceptive and has even hid in the back of the house when we visited the family, but last night she came out and listened and even participated. We read a lot of scriptures, I think she liked it. She asked a lot of questions and was really interested in learning about prophets. This was GREAT, because I love talking about the great apostasy and the restoration. Aaaaannnnddd, we invited her to come with us to church for general conference and she said yes. We invited her to be baptized and she said yes if she gets an answer after praying and feels good about it. We were there for a long time but the spirit was so strong and it was a really great experience.

Before I end I have to tell you about what happened yesterday at church....I gave the lesson in Sunday school. Eeeep. I was so nervous because I didn’t get to prepare at all, we have been so busy and it’s been hard to even get in study time in the mornings. I felt good about the lesson my companion helped out a lot. After the lesson someone commented about how my accent was really good. They had initially thought that another Hermana was being trained by my companion and not me because my accent was better than the other Hermana´s. Interesting. Ha-ha. But it was good. I am glad I got that experience.
This week was very long and a lot happened. it kind of felt like a month even thought it was just one week.

Don’t forget to be kawaii
Love Sam