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 7 otra vez (CAMBIOS)

Hello!

This has been a very busy week. A lot has happened. We had changes on wednesday and Hna C. finished her mission and went home, and I got a new companion. I am now training. My companion is new to the mission and just got here from the Guatemala CCM. 

Training is so much more challenging that I every thought. It always looks so easy when other people are training. I have, now, so much respect for my old trainer Hna. S. Not only did she teach me how to be a missionary and how Honduras funcions, but she also taught me spanish in 12 weeks. My companion is from Honduras and I will be training her until she leaves from Mexico. She's staring her mission here until her Visa gets all sorted. She is very motivated and excited to work. I am trying to train her as best I can so that she can develop good skills right now. 

I am so grateful that I have recieved the opportunity to be a trainer because it means that the mission president, and the lord, trust me to be a leader and to be a good example. I know it will be a challege for me, but i also know that the lord will provide a way. (1 nephi 3:7)

I have officially completed 9 months in the mission field which means i have nine more. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to serve the lord and to help spread the gospel. i am also greateful to have been able to return to finish serving and to have been able to return to the same mission where i started.

on saturday we had a missionary conference (all the honduras, tegucigalpa missionaries and all the honduras, comayaguala missionaries, and broadcasted for internet to all the central american missions) with elder russell m nelson of the quorum of the 12 apostles. i am so grateful to have had this opportunity. i learned so much about the expectations the lord has for me as a missionary and as a daughter of god. we learned so much about how important it is to testify of the plan of salvation and to take our investigators to see the temple in person. i really do think that his words will change the way we teach here in honduras. 

i love you all and hope that you have a great week. 

please email me and send me letters in the mail. if you dont know the address, ask my mom she should know.

love,

sam

the last picture with hna c. before changes

my former companion, also hna c. went home as well. she served her whole mission without being send to the south. que buena suerte.

my new companion! hna. p.

in our area of miraflores. i was thinking the other day about how i wanted to serve in a big city before i got my calling (thinking of tokyo, paris, new york) and here i am in a giant city. not quite what i had expected but its still the greatest.
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