Monday, March 17, 2014

Straight from the down under!‏

Shout-outs!
-This month's Liahona and Ensign have the Tegucigalpa temple on the cover!
-I received my Christmas package! :)
-Letters! Elder Haggard, Elder Weight, Brooke, Mother Anderson, and the Riverside Ward

Thanks everyone! 

This week I'm just gonna write about one day- yesterday. And give you an idea of what it's like here :)

We woke up bright and early. After taking a shower, (by shower I mean filling up a bucket with water and pouring it on myself in the shower) I made a birthday card because Lila's daughter, Angelica, turned 7! After eating some yogurt and granola (my little piece of home) we left and went to get Lila for church. Her son Oscar who is 3 was playing so we played with him while she got ready, then left.

Yesterday was Stake Conference, and normally there is a bus that takes everyone to the stake center (about.... 15 or 20 minutes in car) but they haven't gotten money from Salt Lake yet, so... nothing. Which means half of the ward didn't go to church. But if there's a will, there's a way! So we asked our investigators, the family Ortiz who has been investigating the church for over a year if they would be willing to provide us a ride. They said of course! (I call them Mom and Dad, we're part of the family) So we took Lila there (only Lila... next week we'll get her husband... little steps) then loaded up in the truck and rode to the stake center. 

It was a little different. Two speakers spoke, then there was a broadcast that was recorded earlier that was for all of Central America. Elder Scott spoke (in spanish!) and so did some other people that I don't remember... sorry. Most of my time was entertaining the Ortiz's 3 little girls. 

After church we came home, I changed (pencil skirt in this hot sun? no thanks) then we went to eat lunch with Bishop. Hermana Flynn and Cortes didn't have lunch, so they came with us. It was fun, like always. 

We left to visit a reference that the Elders gave us when they contacted in our area for us. The people we met with last time weren't there, but another woman, Ana, was. She was stellar and asked a bunch of good questions. She seemed genuinely interested to know which church was true. There a bunch of people living in the house, and I told Hermana Rodriguez I'm going to teach them all!

Next was Kenia, who lives really close by our house and we always pass by her. The other day she yelled, "hermanas, when are the english classes!"
 and we told her then asked, "hermana, when are we going to come teach you about jesus?" and she said, "tomorrow!" 
she's really nice and her daughter, Marjori loves us! They also gave us mangoes (they fell down during the lesson- we're grateful not on us!)

Then we ran to Lila to see how she liked church and we talked about the organization of the church. It's one of my favorite things to explain (which we're doing a lot now getting people pumped for general conference) because people see that this church is legit. Many people know that there are tons (no lie, there's a bunch of churches here in Choluteca a lone) of Mormons here, but not many know that there are tons EVERYWHERE. People are always amazed that the things we are teaching are the same that they're teaching in the states, Asia, and Africa. 

Well, we stopped by a members house because he was supposed to leave with us, but he was at the church for choir. So we called bishop to tell the member where we were going to meet up. Bishop said he couldn't go, and I said,
 "oh.... alright...." 
to which he said, "well, hermana Snelson, I think I can find someone... give me a sec."
 I then heard him yelling "hey! the hermanas need someone to leave with them. No, now!" 
a pause, "Hey, hermana? I got 2. Is that okay?" 
So up come running the Elders Quorum President (who got home from his mission  months ago) and Young Men's president. It was perfect because the man we went to teach, Luis, is a father like the Young Men's president, and Elders Quorum President could explain what the organization was like. I was happy- it's SO much better to have members in lessons and even better when you have members willing to help!

After we ran to visit Carmen. Her dad didn't give her permission to be baptized, but she said, "I can get baptized when I'm 18 right?"
 so she still goes to seminary. In fact, when we went to her house she said,
 "hey, why didn't you go to the stake yesterday?"
 "oh, we had appointments"
 "oh it was so fun!"
 "wait... you went?"
 "yeah, I heard about it so I went with Maribel" 
We talked about the importance of enduring to the end and obeying the commandments- sometimes we don't see the blessings right away, but they're always there!

Up next- Tino. He's 70 and the funniest old man I've ever met. His wife and daughter are members, and he recently (randomly) decided to start going to church with him. Every time he says,
 "hermanas, I don't think I can get baptized yet"
 but he is still progressing and I know the more he goes to church (he's been going the past month) the more he will be able to see how great the gospel truly is.

And then we ran home and got the weekly dats ready, and we went to bed. :)

Now for some pictures:

At the church on Sunday 
 
 
 

Hermana Arranda and I in Teguc (one of my Mexican roomates in the CCM)
 
 
 
At a less actives home while she made us lunch
 
 
 
Jose made this FOREVER ago and I finally took pictures with it today. It's hilarious and I have no idea what to do with it, so it just sits on my desk :)
 
 
I love You!

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