Sunday, April 26, 2015 -- Week #10 - Day #69 - San Pedro Sula

9:30 pm

Today was a good day, legs are really tired from walking around so much yesterday, but it's all good, I figure that I'll finish this mission business with some stronger leg muscles!

Church was good, we go to the Gospel Principles class second hour with the other elders and investigators. Today we learned about the offices of the Priesthood, so that was a nice little review. Everything seemed to go pretty smoothly in all the meetings. Also had Ward Council afterwards. I don't really understand what's being said in that meeting, but I get the gist of things...overall we need to work on reactivating our ward members (the people here have some issues with commitment with a lot of things), and we've made a companionship goal to visit every member family and figure out where they live, so we (can ask for references!) can help them out and get to know them better, to help with retention. So that's gonna be fun.

I think today might have been a bit cooler than yesterday, can't quite tell, since as soon as you get dressed in the morning you start to sweat, and it doesn't stop until you've taken a shower at the end of the day and don't do anything more strenuous than walk across the room to where the fan is...love it! But we had some cloud cover today, so that was nice.

I'm also further developing a delightful tan-line on my feet and have a slight one from my watch...I'm gonna have so many weird lines when I get home! Kinda exciting, actually, to see how I'll turn out, it'll be quite interesting, I'm sure.

Tan-line on my footsies!

Got some watch band action too!

I think the rats finally died in our ceiling, we put some traps up there and haven't heard anything the past few days (our house smelled really bad for a day or two) so I think they're gone, so that's good, too.

Since we have so many new sister missionaries here that need trainers and all the old ones are leaving this coming change, Hna Robles thinks I'll be training pretty soon, but hopefully I can have 2 changes with her before then! Missionaries have a training program of 12 weeks, but sometimes you only get the first 6 and you're off being the big person training someone else.

I'm getting a lot better in my Spanish, and feel more comfortable teaching and talking to people, though there's some people I can actually understand, and then others there's just really no hope...but Pres. Dester has counseled me to give it a month or two for my ears to get accustomed to all the Spanish, and then I'll take off and it will be great. So that's what we're aiming for. But there has been progress made, and I'm proud of myself.

And tomorrow's Pday! I think we might go play soccer or something of the sort, we'll see.  Goodnight!

Saturday, April 25, 2015 -- Week #10 - Day #68 - San Pedro Sula

9:30 pm

Made another day! Whoohoo! The Sisters took off this morning and things went back to a degree of more normal-ness.

Halsey got Chikunguyna last night! He couldn't be baptized today, kinda disappointing, but hopefully by next Saturday he'll have recovered from the worst of it and should still be good to go.

We did a ton of street contacting today and walked around all over the place, so my legs and feet are pretty tired, and I have the hiccups right now. Hiccups tickle my tummy!

I would like to take a moment to inform the public that I think one of my absolute favorite things from Honduras are "topo gigios," dang they are amazing. It's just some milk and sugar mixed together and flavored with shredded coconut or chocolate powder or pineapple etc and poured in little portions in a bag and tied off and then frozen, but man, they are just the best things in the world when you're walking around here. When they're frozen, you bite off the corner of the bag and suck out the frozen milk stuff... so yummy! Usually the portions are about 1-2 cups or so, and cost about 5-6 lps. Good stuff right there.

Partially eaten topo gigio, vanilla flavor

Also, they call slugbugs here "cucarachitas" or little cockroaches, thankfully Hna Robles doesn't punch my arm when we pass one (I've seen 2 since I've been here), and they've both been white, and the older version, not the all-roundy ones we usually see in the States.

The taxis here are white as well, and have their black numbers on the side of the car. We get to know all the drivers pretty well, as we use them so much for hospitaling, they're all really good people, I have yet to see a female driver, mostly just the guys seem to drive here.

Walking around today, I heard "Knocking on Heaven's Door" playing from somewhere, so that was nice to finally recognize and understand something since my time here. They also play quite a few songs in English, usually they aren't the best ones to listen to, though, while on a mission or in normal life, so that's interesting. Usually in restaurants they'll alternate and play a latino song, and then English (pretty much just North American artists) and then latino, back and forth.

And, random fact, the District 1 videos were made in San Antonio, Texas! I saw Pres. Beckstead (he was just Brother Beckstead at the time) and the San Antonio Temple, so that was pretty neat. It was fun to see brick houses and grass and bushes and chapels like I have been used to again.

Also, I heard from Hno Lopez today (we're trying to coordinate a musical number for Halsey's baptism with his guitar-playing skills) that India had a level 7 earthquake? Haven't heard much about world events lately, so that was interesting news. I hope the people there are ok. Hna Robles was in an earthquake in Peru in 2011, and the bus she was on was shaking and there was awful traffic, but obviously she's ok, and they've recovered. Earthquakes are rough business.

And some good scriptures, used them a lot in teaching today:

(faith) Alma 32: 21-22, 26-28, 38, 41

(keeping the Sabbath Day holy) Mark 2:27

(God is preparing people to learn about the Gospel) Alma 13:24, Alma 14:16-17

(God will always help us) 1 Nephi 14:12,14

Friday, April 24, 2015 -- Week #10 - Day #67 - San Pedro Sula

7:28 am

Soooo we didn't get to bed until about 11:30 pm last night, guess who was thrilled to get up this morning? Not me! We're having divisions today with the Sister Training Leaders (I think that's what it is in English), so we needed to plan the day and lessons for 2 companionships, coordinate hospital visits with E Markus (our General Secretary of Finance, awesome guy, reminds me a lot of E Roth) to go in our places today, all the normal nursing calls (you don't have to ask permission to take Tylenol, you guys), planning for Halsey's baptism on Saturday, trying to get E Moes (one of the General Secretaries) to call and remind all the missionaries with dentist appointments at 8:30 am today, and we made PB&J's for dinner... so it was a crazy night.

Forgot to mention that peach thingy is like a little jello fruit cup,
kinda tasty, but still tastes like peach plastic!

We had interviews with Pres. Dester yesterday, and what I remember most was that our Heavenly Father will not take away our trials, but He will strengthen us so that we might withstand them. To have patience, with myself, the language, the people, adjusting to working as a full-time missionary and nurse's companion and just how amazed and proud he is of me for hopping into the swing of things and not complaining and performing so well. And if we need anything, always let him or Hna Dester know, and since we talk to them on an almost daily basis, that isn't too hard. So that was a good little boost, I like Pres. and Hna Dester. I've been trying to roll with things so I don't get knocked over, and I think for the most part I'm doing pretty well. But sometimes it's tough, but the Desters or Hna Robles or the youth that we go bring to visits with us help me get excited again and I can recognize that I'm happy to be here, in spite of everything. I'm not quite sure how long the normal adjusting process is to all this craziness, but I hope to keep getting the hang of things and make some good progress.

Funny story, as we were walking to a lesson yesterday we passed the group of guys that we had given some pamphlets (in Spanish it's "folletos", weird having to use the English!) to a few weeks earlier, and I guess they wanted some more "Jesus reading material" (they were happy-drunk at 2:00 pm in the afternoon...good times) so we gave them the "Restoration," "Law of Chastity," and "Word of Wisdom" pamphlets to (hopefully) read...and one of the guys started getting all excited about the little lamb in the arms of Jesus on the cover of the "Restoration" one and started giving it kisses...so that was interesting. 

Also, we visit a less-active guy that's getting reactivated, and every time we end the lesson, he looks at me and goes, "Will you testify to me of these things? Do you know this is true?" and so I assure him that I know what we shared that day was true and of God, and then he's happy...it's interesting because you get really firm in your testimony and know things are true when that's all you're studying, reading, teaching, talking, and praying about, pretty submersive atmosphere here. But it's good, always makes me smile when we visit him.

Abinadi before King Noah, by Arnold Friberg

Also, we won't have the opportunity to go to the temple in Tegucigalpa during the mission, so that's a little sad, but hopefully Hna Kleinman can since it's in her mission. I miss my little CCM district, it mimics my district here as we have 2 companionships of elders and 1 of sisters, as well, we're pretty small. But I love my district here, it's half latino / half gringo, and we have a good time together. 

10:40 pm

The day is still going, the Sisters are staying the night with us, and then will leave tomorrow morning after studying, I'm not quite sure exactly what's happening with this whole divisiones experience mostly because I'm so new and still don't have a fantastic grip on the language and where all our people are, and we have the baptism tomorrow, and it's just crazy in general the past little bit. And I missed Hna Robles today, probably because she's really the only constant in this whole mess of a few days, so being without her was a little tricky. But today was good, a lot of work and walking around and mental gymnastics, but in the end was good.

Haven't had any mosquito bites the past few days, either, so that's a blessing, too. And I finally painted my toes again the other day, they're now a wonderful orangey color, quite cheerful. And, what else...my hair is getting a little longer, so that's exciting. I discovered that the picture I submitted for my mission papers (my blue plumbago family portrait...we also have plumbago here, too) is on all the directories and the companionship board in President Dester's office, so that's funny because I look nothing like myself in that picture...everyone's shocked that I have bangs and short hair since I wear it up pretty much all the time (oh yeah, because it's hot), and I'm somewhat whiter than I am right now. Like I said, I'm always full of surprises, it seems. So yup, pretty much ready for bed, we're trying to assemble a fan so we can have a tad more air movement to sleep tonight, as we just doubled our body heat in our room, but we should hopefully get that done soon. The joys of living in Honduras. Goodnight!

Wednesday, April 22, 2015 -- Week #10 - Day #65 - San Pedro Sula

8:55 pm

Today was hot. And quite humid. But there was some cloud cover, so that was a welcome respite from the intense sun blaring down on us.

Today I learned how to administer a rabies vaccination, so that was interesting, one of the missionaries had a run in with a dog, so they had to come in to the office for Hna Robles to give them the shot, so we all learned how that worked. It was funny, their companion is full-blooded Latino, and they totally thought I was Latino as well, though I have 3 weeks here and I'm clearly blue-eyed and still pretty white-skinned. People's perceptions are amazing, I always think it's funny to see how I'll be perceived each day.  People are fun, and they always surprise you.

As we were in the mission office for a portion of the day, I got through another blessed pile of paperwork, and also met President Klein, in charge of the San Pedro Sula Este Mission, as their offices are just across the hall from ours. He's pretty awesome (I like Pres. Dester a tad better, of course) and very animated and focused. Wished me a warm welcome into the land of Honduras, and had a nice handshake, good guy.

We had a lot of people that got seriously sick today, so it looks like we'll have some hospitaling tomorrow, we also have weekly planning, interviews with Pres. Dester, and Mission Coordination tomorrow. Yay for meetings!

However, on a more spiritual note, I also find it interesting how in Spanish, we refer to death with the verb "estar," which denotes a temporary state of being, something that will change, not a permanent characteristic. The concept of not being dead forever is fundamentally integrated into the language of these people, and I just thought that was pretty cool, in light of the "Plan of Salvation" that we shared quite a few times today, so that was my grand enlightenment of the day.

Tuesday, April 21, 2015 -- Week #10 - Day #64 - San Pedro Sula

8:25 pm

Made it home! And it was hotter in our house than outside. I still have salt all over myself, because all my sweat dries and leaves a lovely white powder in streaks down my arms and legs and mixes with my bug-spray applications...I think I look like an alien! But I am definitely consuming large quantities of water (something along the lines of 3-4 liters, sometimes 5), and I'm doing alright, so don't worry. But it really is very hot here!

In District Meeting E Santiago gave us the example of how we present the Gospel to others. If I wanted you to read something, and threw it at you and it hit your face, you wouldn't really want to have anything to do with it, or me. But if I talked to you first, and showed you what it was, and explained what I wanted you to do with it so you could understand the meaning of it, you would probably be a lot more willing to read it and understand it. Same thing with the Gospel. We can't just go around throwing it at people, it needs to be presented, just as Jesus did when He established it. Like the great quote, "Teach them not so they understand, but so they don't misunderstand." So that was kinda a funny visual to imagine us tossing copies of the Book of Mormon at people and yelling at them to read it...doesn't quite work that way. So we'll apply that in our finding and teaching and be more focused on our investigators, and become "Preach My Gospel" missionaries! Good stuff, there, I would suggest that preparing missionaries should read that through and the scriptures it provides, and maybe go on a few visits with the missionaries in your area, I wish I had done that before I left.

But I love the promise in D&C 24:12 and 1 Nephi 3:7. "And at all times, and in all places, he shall open his mouth and declare my gospel as with the voice of a trump, both day and night. And I will give unto him strength such as is not is not known among men." And thus "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." The Lord always gives us a commandment and a way to accomplish it. He doesn't ask us to do things that are impossible to do...they may not be possible to do with our own strength, but with the Lord, we have the ability to do all things. Pretty neat!

Back to life in Honduras, we ran some hospital trips for a lot of today, and guess who was one of the sick missionaries? Deby! Well, actually, that's not her name, she's Hna Velazquez, but she was the character Deby for CRE practices back at the CCM about a month and half ago...so that was a fun blast from the past! She was having some knee problems, should be alright. But yeah, it's fun to run into old friends in places you'd least expect, although I'm starting to expect just about anything on a mission here!

Also, I discovered that Michael is Miguel in Spanish, it's so fun to figure out the different versions of names. It appears that "Andrea" is a fairly common name down here, I think I've met like 5 of them, so whenever someone calls them I always turn and try to find whoever's calling me, and then I remember that I'm actually Hna Mower, and I smile a little at myself.

Also, I'm getting back into the swing of using a little keypad phone again, it's been a while since 7th grade!  Each companionship gets an area cell phone, so I'm in charge of that, as Hna Robles has a smart-phone for sending / receiving photos of health issues, looking up diseases etc, and emailing Dr. Cragun and Pres. Dester, so we have 2 phones between us.  But I get to answer calls and text on my little phone, so it's fun to hit the 4 key about 5 times in a row and then the 2 key, and then the 7 key...thanks Spanish class for teaching me how to text in Spanish! Never thought I'd ever use that skill.

And Hna Dester is so cute, I just love her. She actually does pretty well with Spanish, it's harder for her since she doesn't have the benefit of immersion, but she can actually hold her own fairly well, despite what she says. She still needs some help translating some things, but she's very patient and has a good attitude about it all, she's a wonderful example for us. They call amazing people to be Mission Presidents, and their wives are equal helpmeets and support their husbands and the mission. We are blessed to have Pres. and Hna Dester with us!

Monday, April 20, 2015 -- Week #9 - Day #63 - San Pedro Sula

11:55 am

Pday! We had study time and cleaned our house, now it's laundry time! That always takes a few hours to do...it takes a long time if you don't have a washer and dryer.

In personal study I was reading in Doctrine and Covenants 84 about missionary work. This past week has been a bit rough on myself and Hna Robles, and we had a good companionship talk last night to help get ourselves back on track and encouraged and comforted and focused on this next week of work we have ahead of us.

But yeah, D&C 84 has some nice verses in it, I especially like 36-38, 46-48, 61-64, the first half of 76, 79-80, 83, 85, 87-the first line of 89, first half of 116, and 119-120.

There is no reason to be fearful to speak the truth. And we know the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be true. We know the scriptures are the words of God to His children on this earth. We know the Book of Mormon to be a book of precious scripture revealed through the power of God. We know God is our Heavenly Father, the Creator of our spirits, and He loves us. We know that families can be eternal. When we pray, we talk to our Father, and He hears us, and responds to us. We have joy and peace in this life because of these truths, and it would behoove us to help others around us come to know these things are true as well and be happy with us.

Now, the way we go about doing that can be a little uncomfortable and daunting, but it really needn't be. And there will always be opposition in one form or another, that is one of the natural laws of God. But we can still live the Gospel in word, thought, and deed, and the fact that you simply extended an invitation and concisely explained why something is important to you is doing that work. It's what I do all day long, inviting and explaining to people about these truths...except it's in Spanish and a slight bit more involved, but the principles of this great and mighty work are the same. I am a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ, set apart with power and authority to preach His Gospel to His children in Honduras for 18 months. But from the moment we come to a knowledge of truth of the Gospel we will never stop being witnesses of Him. Pretty neat, huh? And should we ask for and stay worthy of the presence of the Holy Ghost, a member of the Godhead, to help us in our efforts, there will be joyous success. So cool!

10:15 pm

So Hna Robles is pretty excited, there's gonna be a temple dedicated in Peru in June, and President Monson is going to dedicate it, so that's pretty neat. It's fun to hear news from our loved ones and how things are going in our home countries...thank goodness for internet! We are blessed, indeed.

Trujillo Peru Temple

But, funny side note, I don't know how bad my Spanish sounds in comparison to how it would sound if I were learning English, but it's always fun to hear the people here try to sound out English words, especially my name, usually comes out along the lines of "Mauri," "Mow-rah," or "Moh-where."  My favorite English word of the day was "awkward" with Hna Robles, it came out sort of like "eahk-wehrd," like how Hno Garcia said it. Languages are funny!

After laundry, we had lunch at Burger King because we had coupons for it, and then bought food for the week, and came home and taught a lesson and had a FHE with a wonderful family and watched "Together Forever" with them, pretty neat little video, I encourage you to watch it! It's always interesting how people pick up on different things, we all shared something that caught our attention, and it was a good little FHE, got 2 references and had some delicious orange juice.

But it's great when we're walking around the downtown city part of SPS, every few minutes some guy will pass by and comment "Que bonita son," "Quiere casarme tus ojos," "Que linda son" etc, etc...basically saying how we're so pretty and they want to marry us...that's what ya get! Haven't had much whistling (I really hate that, so that's good) but I have had a few kisses in my direction and some wandering eyes, ugh. You kinda get used to being looked at here, people don't really have bubbles. If you're different, you get looked at.  Different mentality than the States, we are so individual and don't want to get in another's business and there are so many different kinds of people it doesn't matter. But to be 1 of the 70-90 or something white people in this mission, you get looked at a lot. So that's a bit different.

Also almost all the taxis listen to Jesus music, or I think it's some kind of Evangelical televangelist thing, which is kinda funny.

Sunday, April 19, 2015 -- Week #9, Day #62 San Pedro Sula

10:24 pm

My gummy dinosaurs melted from the heat... sad day!

Made it through another week! Yay! Today was good, super hot, I'm pretty certain it hit somewhere around 100 degrees Fahrenheit today, so that was fun. We took Halsey and 2 kiddos to church today (their mother had to work and the older boy wanted to go to church), so that was an adventure, felt like Primary all over again with a 2 year old and a 9 year old to keep occupied during Sacrament Meeting, but we did it! Go team missionary!

In news from Honduras, the concept of Tupperware does not exist, and the fridge isn't really the prime storage place for food. But we're doing well food-wise, we've started cooking for ourselves this week due to some changes in mission rules and elders in need of feeding in our area, so Hna Robles and I have been making some fantastic lunches, I'm quite proud of our culinary expertise!

Our lunch! Typical Honduran food, super delicious!

Also, there are like, a bajillion pigeons that have taken up residence in SPS, it's basically pigeon-land. I though it's funny, in Spanish they're called "palomas" and here popcorn is called "palomitas de maiz" or just "palomitas" which means little pigeons of corn... not quite sure how that happened... maybe because the kernels fly when they pop? Have to do some more cultural research on that one.

I was thinking about enduring earlier today...to endure is to live and grow and help others and learn, and do all that even when there is pain and sadness and negative feelings and impatience for something to be over... to still comport oneself as a child of God, with honor and integrity, even when that is sometimes the last thing on your mind at the moment. To persevere and stay obedient, changing your heart and mind so that it isn't a stumbling block to follow God's will. To stay faithful in the glaring face of adversity. That's what I define enduring to be right now, funny how a mission presents the opportunity to gain an understanding of all the things you've been taught up to this point in your life.

Saturday, April 18, 2015 -- Month #2, Week #9, Day #61 San Pedro Sula

10:02 pm

Happy 2 month birthday to me! Hna Robles made a sweet little card for me, I really am blessed to have her be my trainer and companion, I've got a very good example to follow after.

Also, it was my turn to pray as we left the house, and I said we were thankful for the "goz y paza" that the Gospel brings to people, instead of "gozo y paz," or joy and peace... Hna Robles just laughed and said that God is really good at understanding all kinds of prayers and always encourages us to speak from our hearts, even if it sometimes comes out wrong. So that was kinda funny, as I normally don't trip up like that, but that happens in English a lot too, so I don't worry, just thought it was funny it's starting to happen in Spanish as well.

And since we don't have an ironing board, I'm now a pro at ironing my shirts on the bed...it's actually kinda fun, but I don't know if I should recommend trying it sometime...Momma might get mad for ruining the bed!  Haha!

Today was pretty good, actually taught some lessons that we had planned, which was really nice. A lot of the time I couldn't understand what these people were saying, but sometimes little sentences pop into my head of what I could respond with to their torrent of words, so that's a blessing.

But as for teaching today, that went pretty well, this one guy felt it was necessary to recount to us the entire Noah and the Ark story to illustrate his belief that prophets are important, so that was funny. And a little kid wanted to show me all his Dragon Ball cards and asked me what the character's names were in English, so that was my first taste of Dragon Ball, I can't say I understand exactly happens with it. The show was also playing on the TV in Spanish, but all I really got from it was there was this really muscular golden dude that was chasing after these 2 kids that wanted this orange ball, and a girl that can float on water had to go do something really important, and then the golden dude threw some kind of ultra-light ball and the black haired guy shielded everyone and ended up dying, I think, and that's about all I got from that experience. Lots of yelling and jumping around and really intense faces... perhaps it makes more sense with some English. Anyways, the kids were super cute, I kept the littlest one occupied with my scriptures and a Plan of Salvation pamphlet so Hna Robles could teach a quick message to the mom and older kid, and I gave my testimony at the end...always supposed to adapt the lessons to the people, right?

Also it was funny, we were visiting a family and the dad needed the son to be home soon to go to a meeting, so he called him on the phone and I guess the son was like, "Hello, who is this?" because the dad answered, "Soy yo, tu papa" and I just thought that was the funniest thing in the world, partly because of how he said it, like it was obvious who he was, and partly because it translates over to something like "It is I, your dad"....families are the same wherever you go, pretty neat.

So yeah, tomorrow's Sunday! Whoohoo! hopefully our investigators will be able to come and we don't have to walk around in circles for 40 minutes in this blessed heat... but I'm planning to wear my ladybug outfit, so things should work out. Goodnight!

Friday, April 17, 2015 -- Week #9, Day #60 San Pedro Sula

9:50 pm

All our teaching appointments fell through, as well as our backup plans, so we did a lot of walking around and street contacting. All. Day. Long. Met some really interesting people... apparently I look like First Lady Laura Bush? And I should use an umbrella so I don't turn bright red from the sun, because I'm so white and from Houston. And also Utah. And I don't speak much Spanish because of my whiteness. And one guy was in a gang, but is Evangelical now, and wanted to know what our beliefs were on the afterlife to verify that we were teaching correct things. And someone else was poking the ground with a stick and mumbling. And a lady will only let us teach her if we stay outside. And a young child was crying because he wanted to go to the store in the car, not walking. Also, we passed a house that used Christmas lights as a clothesline, I think the bulbs were removed? Very interesting day, indeed. Plus a lot of walking outside, under a very intense sun... Viva la obra misional en San Pedro Sula!

We did manage to meet with 2 of our investigators, and they're not too thrilled with baptism anymore, so that's sad.  And this one older guy kept poking my arm and asking me questions during one of the lessons, and I seriously cannot understand a word he says, ever, so that's frustrating... when I come home and someone needs to talk to me, please don't poke me repeatedly. Ah, today was a weird day.

Thursday, April 16, 2015 -- Week #9, Day #59 San Pedro Sula

10:14 pm

Today we had 5 hospital appointments and 1 teaching visit... a lot of people got sick recently and needed medical attention.

Also, everyone here is only familiar with Houston, TX, so whenever they determine that I am not in fact from Utah, but from Texas, they immediately ramble on about Houston. Wonderful people, really, and it seems also that not many of them know where Peru is (that's where Hna Robles is from)... so we're 2 foreigners, just chilling in Honduras and trying to teach the Gospel... good times.

Also, the currency here is almost exclusively bills, there are coins in existence, but they're valued at almost nothing, the exchange rate is around 20 lempiras to 1 dollar, and I'm pretty sure a lot of unprocessed-name brand things here are cheaper than in the states, but more useful things like hand sanitizer, sunscreen, aloe vera and stuff like that are pretty pricey. 

And, people breastfeed in public. In the hospital today a little girl ran over to her mom and just pulled her shirt down (actually, it was a tank top, not many people wear actual shirts), switched sides, and then ran off again...so that was interesting. Also, it's not really normal to walk on the sidewalks, the street is preferred, and jaywalking is necessary. And pedestrians do not have the right of way, the big metal car driving at high speeds all over the road does. So watch your step at all times.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015 -- Week #9, Day #58 San Pedro Sula

9:35 pm

No hospitaling today! We did run by the office to check on some things, and I gave my mountain of paperwork to E Markus to give to President Dester to sign off on all the forms, poor guy. It's so sad, we've had 3 elderes return home for health reasons since I've been here. It's a different perspective on missionary life from the medical side of everything, it's incredible how this whole system works so well. But the hand of the Lord is in all things, so in the end it will work out, should we choose to let it.

We did have some appointments today, so that was good! We finally visited one lady after a long time since her son is part of one of the numerous gangs here and the last visit did not go over well with him, but he's not in the city right now, so we felt it was alright to visit with her again. Very sweet lady, I couldn't understand a word she said, but I could tell she was struggling in her life and that she appreciated our visit and short message about the strength of the Lord and the role of the Holy Ghost. There are some very good people here, and they simply don't have access to the opportunities that should be afforded to them. Very sad.

But on more happy news from Honduras, I have discovered a great discovery: "oatmeal" here is usually called "avena" or "mosh" or "avena mosh," and therefore... the skincare brand Aveeno is oatmeal based.  Boom!  Just realized that today as we were walking under the blessed sun for hours. I'm getting really good at this word-connection game!

It's still kinda trippy to realize that I'm talking to people, in Spanish, in the country of Honduras in Central America, about the Gospel of Jesus Christ... still kinda mind-boggling.  In a good way, of course, but I honestly would not have imagined myself here if I had thought about it, even 6 months ago. Weird. Apparently I'm supposed to be here, though, so I'll make the most of it that I can, fulfill my purpose, whatever it may end up being. I kinda feel like a sponge, just absorbing and analyzing and remembering what Hna Robles is saying and doing, so I have an idea of what should happen and what I can say.

Also, the grapes here are huge (almost ping pong ball size) and have 3-4 seeds, usually. Goodnight!

Tuesday, April 14, 2015 -- Week #9, Day #57 San Pedro Sula

10:20 pm

I think this is the tired-est I've been this whole time, I'm starting to fall asleep as I'm writing... really long day. My legs kinda hurt from hiking around yesterday, and I got a slight headache today, but some water and a granola bar helped with that.

Today we spent about 5 hours in the Hospital Bendana, there was an elder that had an infected wound and needed surgery to clean it out, so we were there for that, basically had to cancel all our appointments, but we did get to visit with one family for a little while after we got back to our area, so that was good. The mother has Chikungunya, so we went and visited them to see if we could do any help around the house and shared a short message.  And I will tell you that hospitaling is just as tiring as walking around all day, though I don't quite see how that's possible.

The poor elder that was unwell today was from Hawaii and his companion from New Zealand, and they still don't have a super firm grasp on Spanish, so I helped explain some things to them on how to care for his wound and about future checkups and stuff, everyone seems to be amazed that this is my first transfer, and that I can understand the medical Spanish, thanks anatomy class! It makes me smile to be able to still be able to surprise people.

And, news from life in Honduras, I've gotten to be a pro at making stove-top mac and cheese...but microwave edition. Our little stove thing died, so I'm wielding the power of microwave electromagnetic radiation to make dinner...quite the adventure, let me tell ya.  

We recently discovered that there's a family of rats that live in our ceiling and we can hear their activities and scampering about in the night-time. I must say that every part of life here has something unique about it.

Scripture of the day: 3 Nephi 23:10-14, presented in our District Meeting today. Apparently our zone was needing to fill out our records and stuff better, so that was kinda funny to compare Nephi not writing down the words of the Lord to our Area Books, but both are pretty important in the Work of God... good stuff.

Monday, April 13, 2015 -- Week #8, Day #56 San Pedro Sula

My study desk

My scripture and hymnal covers

8:20 am
Scripture of the day: John 8 with the stories of Jesus and the adulteress and talking to the Pharisees in the Temple. I think this is one of my favorite chapters of scripture because it is a powerful, direct dialogue between Jesus and the Pharisees. I also love the Bible videos of this chapter on lds.org. I was also thinking about why is it easier to believe in the prophesy, rather than the one who was prophesied of...I'll have to think some more on that.  

10:14 pm

We had Pday today! Whoohoo! It was really fun, we went as a district and hiked up Coca Cola Mountain, and went to Pizza Hut for lunch, and wrote our families, and got food for the week, and taught some lessons. So I enjoyed today, it was probably the most I've ever sweated in my life, but it was good, we had a really fun time together.

Hike Coca Cola Mountain with District

E Santiago found a goat!

Hna Robles and Hna Mower

Our district and zone lideres!

... and you thought I was TINY!

We made it to the top!

District groupie!
E Gonzalez, me, E Santiago, E Comin, Hna Robles, E Martinez

The elderes were talking guns and cars and swapping war stories from their areas, and I felt like I lived in a little bubble here in my area, but I guess that's a good thing. Being the nurse's companion has a different angle than the usual mission here, as we have to stay here in the city to be close to the hospitals and office, and sometimes we can't work as much in our area because of nursing stuff... everyone I've talked to is sorry that that happens, but it really isn't too bad.  We're still making progress, albeit we have lower stats than most other missionaries, but that's alright, because that's all we can accomplish in a day, sometimes. But I am proud to say that I'm getting really good at doing contacts with the taxi drivers since we spend so much time together...just different ways of accomplishing the same thing.

I was so happy today, because we found this one computer place that was absolutely perfect, since we don't have internet in this area or something like that, we have to go to the shopping place / mall, and there's some computer banks that are open to public use, so the ones that we usually go to are super busy and loud and you have to wait forever to use one, and USB ports don't cooperate, but today we found this newer, little, out-of-the-way one, and it was perfect! It was quiet and we didn't have to wait and the USB ports worked perfectly! The internet was a tad slow initially, but it warmed up and worked quite nicely. So that was a blessing, I hope we can use that one again next week.

Tomorrow we have a hospital and an office visit, so we won't work our area until about 4:00 pm, which is "normal" for these kinds of days, and we gotta be home around 8:00 pm, so that's 4 hours to serve!  Gotta make it count! As always, Hurrah for Israel!