Sunday, June 26, 2016 -- Month #16 - Week #71 - Day #496 - Las Flores, Villanueva, Cortes

Church! Kevin, one of our investigators came, so that was good. We don't know what happened to Lucia, she disappeared for a few days. But we're gonna go find her again this next week!

It was kinda funny in our Gospel Principles class (there's an assigned teacher! We don't have to teach!) because we were going over the Plan of Salvation again and the teacher asked us, "What is the purpose of a mango?"  And everyone just looked confused for a minute.  "A mango...is to be eaten!"  And then everyone caught on.  "AH, yep, that's right!"  "Alright, and what do we have flowers for?"  "To make the earth pretty!"  "Correct! Now, what is the purpose of man?"  "That they might have joy!"  Yeah, that was a fun class. Sometimes you got to really sit and ponder the purpose of a mango.

And we visited a bunch of inactives, and ended our day helping some 17 year old boys make a soda can car for their homework due the next day. Apparently they had been trying for the past 2 hours to make this car, so I decided to help them out and made one in about half an hour and it turned out pretty neat, so we were all happy.

The soda can car that I made!
Vive la ciencia e ingenieria!!

I finally finished a little drawing for Hna Escobar!

And also I finished Hna Artica's journal design as well.

Saturday, June 25, 2016 -- Month #16 - Week #71 - Day #495 - Las Flores, Villanueva, Cortes

Today was Saturday! We did our citas, and gave out copies of the Book of Mormon in the park. Every time we do that it makes me think of my experience with that in the CCM. Oh, that was sooooooo uncomfortable! We didn't speak a lick of Spanish, we had no idea how to present the Book of Mormon or understand how to ask for the person's information so that the missionaries in Guatemala could then find them again and teach them. Yeah, I didn't really enjoy that whole thing to be honest. But now I'm much better at it! So this time wasn't so bad. Most of the people didn't live in our area limits, so we'll give the references to the other missionaries.

There were a ton of brown butterflies all on this puddle in the street.

And we actually tried contacting a group of people in the park, and turns out that they spoke sign language. So that didn't really work out so good. But it just made me laugh that of all the chances to contact someone, we tried with a group of people that don't speak or hear. So there you go!

A turkey and the girl turkey were chasing Hna Artica...
it was actually pretty funny!

And in my personal scripture study I'm currently in Helaman 6! I'm really hoping that I can finish in a month and a half...I think I can. I'm reading with the manual, so it goes about 3 times as slow because you read the chapter, mark it up, then read the manual commentary, ponder for a bit, write down some quotes you like, and then go back to reading. It's a process. But I love it! I'm getting a better grip on how the history goes and noticing some things that I hadn't before. So I'm happy with it.

Friday, June 24, 2016 -- Month #16 - Week #71 - Day #494 - Las Flores, Villanueva, Cortes

Today we ran around SPS and did some errands for Hna Artica, so we didn't really do much in our area in way of work.

On our way to lunch there's these sheep we pass.
There's also loose horses and turkeys in the streets sometimes.

And my beautiful feet...they make me laugh everyday when I see them.

But we did get to go over our Area Book and fill out our teaching records for the people we're teaching, since all we got was the binder and no papers. And the link that we normally use to access the digital files didn't work. And the elderes didn't have any extras to make copies. So we got to do all our info stuff tonight. But we got to crash course Hna Artica into how to fill out all the paperwork and look up dates of visits and what we taught and who was there and all that fun stuff. It's a good thing that I make little notes after every visit, or this catching-up business would be really hard. Makes you appreciate the gifts of the prophets in the scriptures as they wrote everything after the fact.

Thursday, June 23, 2016 -- Month #16 - Week #71 - Day #493 - Las Flores, Villanueva, Cortes

Today was good, the maintenance people of the mission installed our smoke detector, so that was a good thing. And we're still eating a lot of mango, just to let you know. Up until the time I go is mango season.

We did some visits and went looking for some more people that didn't want to talk to us. We actually called this one guy while standing outside his house after yelling buenas and the lady that lived there as well said he wasn't home. Well, we called him, and as I talked to him on the phone Hna Artica could hear his voice from the house. And he said he wasn't home, either. I love playing games with people.

But today was still a good day, we had red beans with mantequilla (basically a form of sour cream), half a tiny avocado, 2 little sausages and 3 tortillas for dinner. Good stuff!

And in my personal study I found this awesome quote from President Marion G. Romney about service that made me think about service differently. And my missionary service as well:

"Service is not something we endure on this earth so we can earn the right to live in the celestial kingdom. Service is the very fiber of which an exalted life in the celestial kingdom is made."

Wednesday, June 22, 2016 -- Month #16 - Week #71 - Day #492 - Las Flores, Villanueva, Cortes

And I made Hna Artica and I omelets the other day. Pretty proud
of myself since that's the first time I had made them.

Today we had a lot of citas! We were happy and the day went by fast. And it sprinkled rain all day long and Hna Artica lost her new umbrella, so that was a little sad. But we had some more members come with us on visits, so that was awesome. Overall good day.

Oh! And Lucia accepted her baptism date of the 9th of July! That's a first in a VERY long time for me. I'm very excited!

Tuesday, June 21, 2016 -- Month #16 - Week #71 - Day #491 - Las Flores, Villanueva, Cortes

Reunion de Distrito! We learned the importance of extending commitments to our investigators and how to help them keep them. And this zone has the tradition of playing mafia after the meetings, but we have pastors and missionaries instead of the usual names. The problem is that there's only 4 hnas and a whole bunch of elderes, so obviously more of them are going to be out than us. But when we aren't out fast enough we get accused being a pastor that takes people out of the game, so that's an interesting psychology. I think we're gonna have to not all sit together so it's not so obvious that more elderes will go out than hnas. Silly elderes.

And then we had lunch and did some errands, and some other things, and did some visits. We also finally managed to find a less-active hna we've been trying to locate since we got here, so we were very happy about that.

I always have 3 or 5 geckos on my window... I guess they like me!
They sing their little clicking noise at night.

Monday, June 20, 2016 -- Month #16 - Week #70 - Day #490 - Las Flores, Villanueva, Cortes

Today we walked a very large amount...6.938 miles, to be exact. This was because we went as a district to find the mines that are here. Turns out that the mines are actually a bunch of eroded rocks, but we had fun climbing around and walking a lot.

Our adventures to Las Minas!!!!!

  

And we found some of the minas.

Iguana lizards in the holes

And here's ME!

And we did all our normal cleaning and washing and whatnot and wrote our families and had a good day.

Sunday, June 19, 2016 -- Month #16 - Week #70 - Day #489 - Las Flores, Villanueva, Cortes

Sunday! Today felt kinda long. In Sacrament Meeting we had 2 investigators! Whoooooo! And the topics were virtue and the Word of Wisdom, so that was an interesting combination. There's always multiple themes here, as opposed to just one like it is back home. Anyways, we got to listen to those messages, and then we all filed out for the Gospel Principles class for the investigators (it's been 6 months since I've seen that manual because we never had anyone to teach in Copan...) and then to Relief Society. And then we were done! But then we had to track down our investigators that came and set up citas to visit them again, and then go figure out what the RS was going to do with our lunches (we ended up like we were at the end...so I think we'll just stick with the hna that gives lunch to all the missionaries here).

And we finally got ourselves home and had a snack and did some stuff around the house and then went and had lunch with Hna Damaris and had a Consejo de Distrito, basically, trying to figure out what we were gonna do for Pday tomorrow. And then we had Coordinacion with Jose, and went around trying to find and invite people to the Devotional this afternoon, and then attended said devotional, and then went around looking for more people to contact and teach. Got ourselves lost and found a few times, and then picked up our dinner of baleadas and headed back home. Did a visit to Hna Reina, our inactive landlady, and she liked it a lot. And then we finally got home and finished our day! Glory hallelujah!

Saturday, June 18, 2016 -- Month #16 - Week #70 - Day #488 - Las Flores, Villanueva, Cortes

Happy 16 months to me! Whoo! I don't feel as old as I did with 15 months, but it does feel like the end is much nearer. Weird.

Anyways, today was good, we waited another 2 hours for our lunch, so I think we're gonna try and change who gives us lunch on Saturdays. We spend WAY too much time waiting. And we got half a pound of rice, and a chicken leg and a glass of Pepsi. Delish.

 Our lunch of rice and chicken...

... and Hna Artica eating said lunch!

But then we ran over to have Coordinacion with Jose again, and the elderes never showed up, so we rescheduled for tomorrow.

But then we went running around trying to find our investigators and we challenged all of them to baptism and all of them said no. They don't actually say, "No, I refuse to be baptized", they give some excuse about them already being baptized in their church or evade the question and start talking about some random point of the lesson and don't actually give a straight answer. So we have to explain again about baptism and how it needs to be by the priesthood of God for it to be valid, and then they go off about how awesome their preacher is. Yeah. Hna Artica is learning patience! It's cuz it is SO rare that someone will actually give a straight answer, ever, to whatever question it is. Or we explain something 5 times, in different ways, and they still refuse to understand or accept logic. I don't know. But we're getting really good at doing short and simple lessons and inviting people to do a whole bunch of things. Mainly, read the folleto, think about it for a bit, and pray and ask God if it's true. And that they're invited to Church, Sunday at 8:00 am. So Hna Artica's got all that down pat! She's an awesome person.

And it also rained on us in the afternoon, so we got to go contacting and get rejected in the rain, just like in the movies. It wasn't that awful, it just always makes me laugh. And that helps Hna Artica laugh, so we're all good.

But at the end of the day, we finally found a mother and daughter that are very receptive, so we were thrilled with that. We're gonna try with them and hopefully this can work out.

And other than that, not much is happening, honestly. We're still doing a lot of contacting, but we've narrowed down to just 1 part of our area that we haven't visited yet, so we've almost got all our ground covered. Then we'll be able to set certain days to go to certain parts so we won't have to run from one end to the other. But we're getting there!

Friday, June 17, 2016 -- Month #15 - Week #70 - Day #487 - Las Flores, Villanueva, Cortes

Friday! Today we had a lot of citas, so that was good. And we still managed to walk more today than we did yesterday contacting the world. I'm not quite sure how we did that.

But we have a cita where our new mission leader was present and contributed, so that was awesome. The first time in all my mission that the ward mission leader worked with us like that. I'm very impressed.

And we visited a few more members and had some nice discussions on the topics of prayer and studying the scriptures. At the beginning of a cita we always ask the investigators or members if they've been praying and reading, and then we can base our teaching off of their answers. It was kinda funny because with the members that were struggling to read their scriptures Hna Artica was about to give them a serious machete with a verse in 1 Nephi 19, but I glanced at the page and thought that would be a bit strong in the situation we were in with them, so I whispered some counsel to her as everyone was taking out their scriptures to read and she switched over to a different verse in the same chapter that had a better message for them. Sometimes you can be a destroying angel, calling to repentance, but sometimes you need to be a bit more loving and gentle. It just kinda made me laugh a bit. But I was also glad that she didn't get offended and she listened to me. She really does have a good heart and wants to do what is right. But she is a cutie, pulling out all sorts of scriptures all over the place.

And we had dinner with Hna Inesita and her daughters, and it was her birthday! We had our tortillas with quesillo and chimol (that I love!) and some birthday cake. Really sweet ladies, and I actually knew one of her daughters that's from la Victoria Villanueva from doing divisions there. So that was awesome and weird! I also had recognized the bishop's wife from when she gave a talk in Stake Conference way back when I was in Santa Cruz. The world gets small when you come back close to an area you've been in! But she's an amazing lady so I'm happy to get to know her twice.

And we found another church:

- Jesucristo es el Senor, Iglesia de Vida Nueva.

Rock on.

Thursday, June 16, 2016 -- Month #15 - Week #70 - Day #486 - Las Flores, Villanueva, Cortes

Weekly Planning! Whoo! And we had lunch with Hna Damaris, who also cooks for all the elderes here...so we're 8 missionaries that eat lunch with her. She's an awesome lady.

And then we started our wanderings again, didn't have many citas actually, but we did contact a lot of people, so that was good.

And it was a little rainy, but we didn't get that wet, just a few drops. Not really exciting day, to be honest.

But Hna Artica is doing very well, so we're happy about that. She's taken very well to missionary work. And she doesn't like the 12 Semanas training so much because she already knows all about it and gets a little bored, to be honest. So we try playing games or reading while standing on one foot to make it more interesting. 

But it's good when we have some videos and not just reading because at least the videos are visually stimulating. She's funny. So I promised her that if we get the 12 Semanas segment finished for the week in 2 days (instead of the normal 3) we could leave to work in the morning on Saturday and not have to stay home. So she was pretty thrilled about that. With Hna Mora we had to walk through a lot of things because her previous trainer (Hna Rosas) didn't do much, but Hna Artica is pretty darn prepared. She's a force to be reckoned with!

Wednesday, June 15, 2016 -- Month #15 - Week #70 - Day #485 - Las Flores, Villanueva, Cortes

I would like to start by saying that I am currently eating a bowl of beef ramen with lime and chile and some of the dried seaweed my family sent me and I feel very happy inside. It's a nice variation from the egg I always toss in, and it makes me feel like I'm eating in a nice Asian restaurant. So that was my big news of the day!

But today was good, we walked around a lot as well, but around 4.7 miles, so not as crazy as yesterday. Our legs and feet were still sore, though. But it made me think of the pioneers, actually, and I deeply respect them. We have the modern blessings of good shoes and only hauling around a few pounds of scriptures and purified water and umbrellas, not all your earthly possessions in a handcart. And it's not snowing and we're not traversing mountains in unknown territory, with unfriendly people that would kill you if they saw you. And we have bug spray to help prevent so much diseases. So I consider myself to be very blessed, actually. And the most we walk is 6 miles in a day, and they walked more everyday. So that was my main thought of the day, apart from trying to teach the Gospel, of course.

But we only had 3 citas and the rest of the day we just went around contacting people. We also found a few inactive members, so that was good. But mostly just walking around trying to find someone that would be willing to listen to us. There are some hard people here, very stuck in their religions.

Common response to us asking if we could talk with someone is that they go to a different church. Well, the Gospel applies to everyone, not just us as missionaries, and not just the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And it's actually a good idea of you give us 20 minutes to explain some things to you. But it just makes me a little sad how disinterested some people are. Well, a lot of people, actually.

In all our wanderings we found some more churches that people made (Mom, do you know how long my list is now?  I'm guessing it's somewhere around 80 or so churches by now?)

- Festival de Canto, Tiempo de Alegria

- Iglesia Pentecostal Dios es Amor

- Jehovah Nissi (I have no idea what Nissi is, no one will tell me...but it's an Evangelical thing) "El Todopoderso habita en esta casa, el Destructor no podra tocarnos"

- Iglesia de Jesucristo Alfa y Omega Villanueva

Yeah...people have a lot of churches here.

List of Churches found on Mission:

Thursday, June 17, 2016 -- Month #15 - Week #70 - Day #487 - Las Flores, Villanueva, Cortes

- Jesucristo es el Senor, Iglesia de Vida Nueva

Tuesday, June 15, 2016 -- Month #15 - Week #70 - Day #485 - Las Flores, Villanueva, Cortes

- Festival de Canto, Tiempo de Alegria

- Iglesia Pentecostal Dios es Amor

- Jehovah Nissi (I have no idea what Nissi is, no one will tell me... but it's an Evangelical thing)

            [El Todopoderso habita en esta casa, el Destructor no podra tocarnos]

- Iglesia de Jesucristo Alfa y Omega Villanueva

Tuesday, June 14, 2016 -- Month #15 - Week #70 - Day #484 - Las Flores, Villanueva, Cortes

- Iglesia Bautista Torre Fuerte

- Iglesia Filial Fuego Pentecostes

Tuesday, June 07, 2016 -- Month #15 - Week #69 - Day #477 - Las Flores, Villanueva, Cortes

- Iglesia Impacto de Dios

- la Iglesia Evangelica Getsemani

Thursday, May 26, 2016 -- Month #15 - Week #67 - Day #465 - El Dorado, La Entrada, Copan

- Iglesia el Arca de Noe

- Iglesia Biblia Abierta

Saturday, May 21, 2016 -- Month #15 - Week #66 - Day #460 - El Dorado, La Entrada, Copan
- Iglesia Lirios del Valle

Friday, May 20, 2016 -- Month #15 - Week #66 - Day #459 - El Dorado, La Entrada, Copan

- Iglesia del Dios Vivo, Columna y Apoyo de la Verdad "La Luz del Mundo"

Thursday, May 19, 2016 -- Month #15 - Week #66 - Day #458 - El Dorado, La Entrada, Copan

- Iglesia Bautista Victoria en Cristo

Wednesday, May 18, 2016 -- Month #15 - Week #66 - Day #457 - El Dorado, La Entrada, Copan

- La Iglesia Casa de Misericordia

Friday, May 13, 2016 -- Month #14 - Week #65 - Day #452 - El Dorado, La Entrada, Copan

- Ministerio Arbol de Vida

Thursday, April 28, 2016 -- Month #14 - Week #63 - Day #437 - El Dorado, La Entrada, Copan

- Iglesia Cristiana La Fe Viviente: Formando Soldados para Jesus

- Iglesia de Cristo Mision Evangelical: Salem

- Iglesia de Cristo Solo

Wednesday, April 06, 2016 -- Month #13 - Week #60 - Day #415 - El Dorado, La Entrada, Copan

- Ministerio Mi Vina

Thursday, March 31, 2016 -- Month #13 - Week #59 - Day #409 - El Dorado, La Entrada, Copan

- Iglesia el Buen Pastor

Thursday, March 24, 2016 -- Month #13 - Week #58 - Day #402 - El Dorado, La Entrada, Copan

- Ministerio Internacional "Fuente de Luz"

- Asamblea de Dios "Templo Esmirna"

Tuesday, March 22, 2016 -- Month #13 - Week #58 - Day #400 - El Dorado, La Entrada, Copan

- Ministerio Renovacion Cristiana

Saturday, March 12, 2016 -- Month #12 - Week #56 - Day #390 - El Dorado, La Entrada, Copan

- Templo Cristiano Familiar "Peniel"

Thursday, March 10, 2016 -- Month #12 - Week #56 - Day #388 - El Dorado, La Entrada, Copan

- Ministerio Internacional: Libres para Adorar

Sunday, February 28, 2016 -- Month #12 - Week #54 - Day #377 - El Dorado, La Entrada, Copan

- la Iglesia Maranatha (Asamblea de Dios)

Thursday, February 25, 2016 -- Month #12 - Week #54 - Day #374 - El Dorado, La Entrada, Copan

- Iglesia Roca de Salvacion

- Iglesia Puerta del Cielo

Friday, February 19, 2016 -- Month #12 - Week #53 - Day #368 - El Dorado, La Entrada, Copan

- Iglesia Centroamericana Renacer

- Iglesia de Cristo

Thursday, February 18, 2016 -- Month #12 - Week #53 - Day #367 - El Dorado, La Entrada, Copan

- Ministerio Evangelico de Integracion Familiar "Linaje Real" their sign out front says, "Nosotros somos un pueblo adquirido por Dios, vive Jehovah de los Ejercitos"

- Iglesia CEFAM (stands for something about the Evangelical ministry and families... didn't quite catch all of it)

- Iglesia PIER (stands for the Primera Iglesia Evangelica Reformada)

Friday, February 12, 2016 -- Month #11 - Week #52 - Day #361 - El Dorado, La Entrada, Copan

- Iglesia Radio Manos de "Jesus" (it's a radio station that's also a church... interesting concept)

- Iglesia de Vida Abundante

- Iglesia Lineage Escogido (had a menora painted on the front)

- Templo Evangelico Amigos Restaurados

- Iglesia Bautista "Roca Eterna"

Thursday, February 11, 2016 -- Month #11 - Week #52 - Day #360 - El Dorado, La Entrada, Copan

- Iglesia La Luz del Mundo

- Templo Fuente de Vida "Asamblea de Dios"

Wednesday, February 10, 2016 -- Month #11 - Week #52 - Day #359 - El Dorado, La Entrada, Copan

- Iglesia de Dios de la Profecia

- Iglesia de Dios de la Creacion de Pactos

Friday, January 8, 2016 -- Month #10 - Week #47 - Day #326 - El Dorado, La Entrada, Copan

- la Iglesia Evangelica [Amigos]

Thursday, January 7, 2016 -- Month #10 - Week #47 - Day #325 - El Dorado, La Entrada, Copan

- Iglesia Evangelica Menonita

- Templo Fuente de Vida, Asamblea de Dios

Saturday, January 2, 2016 -- Month #10 - Week #46 - Day #320 - El Dorado, La Entrada, Copan

- El Concilio de Iglesias de Cristo Misioneras M.I. Inc. [Predicando la Verdadera Palabra]

Thursday, December 31, 2015 -- Month #10 - Week #46 - Day #318 - El Dorado, La Entrada, Copan

- Catholic church

- la Iglesia Victoria

- la Iglesia de Dios el Jardin de Eden

- el Centro de Vida Emanuel

Thursday, November 26, 2015 -- Month #9 - Week #41 - Day #283 - Santa Cruz de Yojoa

- La Iglesia Evangelica Pacto Biblico de Santidad

Wednesday, November 18, 2015 -- Month #9 - Week #40 - Day #275 - Santa Cruz de Yojoa

- La Iglesia de la Vision Celestial

Wednesday, October 28, 2015 -- Month #8 - Week #37 - Day #254 - Santa Cruz de Yojoa

- La Iglesia de Jesucristo Renacer (also in SPS)

- La Iglesia de Dios Central a Pimienta

- La Iglesia de Dios Jehovah Jireh

- La Iglesia del Senor: La Vida Nueva

Tuesday, October 13, 2015 -- Month #7 - Week #35 - Day #239 - Santa Cruz de Yojoa

- La Cosecha

- La Sala Evangelica

- La Iglesia de Dios, Hermandad Cristiana

- El Templo de Sinai (La Asamblea de Dios)

- Alfa y Omega

- Los Adventistas del Septimo Dia

- La Iglesia de Jesus, el Verdadero Dios

- La Iglesia del Dios de la Biblia

- La Iglesia Biblica Bautista Independiente

- El Ministerio Iglesia de Jesucristo: Alfa y Omega

- El Ministerio Internacional: La Arca del Pacto del Vino y Aceite Nuevo

- La Iglesia de Cristo

- La Iglesia Luterana Monte Getsemani

- Congregacion Evangelica Centroamericana: Genesaret (their sign also has the words "Mas vosotros soy linaje     escogido")

- Los Testigos de Jehova (their sign out front says "El Salon del Reino de los Testigos de Jehova")

- La Iglesia Livertando a los Cautibos

- La Iglesia Catolica

- La Iglesia Evangelica Filadelfia

- MAAM (El Ministerio Apostolico Avance Misionero)

- La Luz del Mundo (an Evangelical church)

- La Iglesia Evangelica Reformada

- La Iglesia Shaddai

- La Iglesia Fuente Iluminosa Centroamericana

- La Iglesia de Cristo Ebenezer

- La Iglesia Bautista

Tuesday, June 14, 2016 -- Month #15 - Week #70 - Day #484 - Las Flores, Villanueva, Cortes

District Meeting! And also Hna Mora has 8 months today! That makes me happy! And old...when I go home she'll have 10 months, and Hna Artica will have 3.

We learned about the Book of Mormon again in District Meeting and we did a WHOLE lot of practices of different approaches to introducing and teaching the Book of Mormon. It just isn't a meeting of missionaries without practices! But everything went well, and we had Mexican tacos for lunch! I normally need to eat about 8 of them to get full, since they're so small, but we only had 3. But they were good! Just little corn tortillas with shredded chicken and chimol on top. Simple, and delicious. I'm making them at home!

And we went looking for all our people again and they were a little hard to find. But we found some other people, so that was good. We also walked 6.444 miles, burned 367.4 calories, and took 13,610 steps. Poor Hna Artica was pretty much done at the end of the day, and my legs were pretty tired as well. We've gotta find her some good walking shoes soon because she's just got her little thin-soled flats and her feet are killing her. We're gonna go sandal shopping!

And we also found 2 other churches:

- Iglesia Bautista Torre Fuerte

- Iglesia Filial Fuego Pentecostes

Monday, June 13, 2016 -- Month #15 - Week #69 - Day #483 - Las Flores, Villanueva, Cortes

Pday! Yay! Hna Reina let us borrow her washer machine to wash our clothes because our pila isn't done yet and so we can't wash by hand. Although I personally think I can get my clothes a little cleaner when I wash by hand. But we were grateful for her help and for our clothes!

And we cleaned up the house a bit and Hna Artica made us our lechuga preguntona that we'll be using in our FHE tonight. And then we went and had lunch at Pizza Hut with all the lovely elderes. And wrote our families! And then bought food for the week and we forgot to buy umbrellas! But we're hoping that it doesn't rain until Wednesday when we'll have a chance to go looking for them.

But we did our FHE's and got to know some more members, so that was good. And I had my first real hot dog in almost 16 months! Granted the actual hot dog wasn't that awesome, as it was really skinny and didn't taste like much, but it was in a big bun when ketchup and mustard! And chopped cabbage on top, so it was sort of like having sauerkraut? Anyways, that was a surprising experience that enjoyed!

Keep on keeping on!!

Sunday, June 12, 2016 -- Month #15 - Week #69 - Day #482 - Las Flores, Villanueva, Cortes

Today was Sunday! We went to Church, and Lucia came! And stayed for all 3 hours! So that was incredible. She's the Evangelical lady that we're teaching that prays for a really, really long time.

And my lovely face...everyone's still very amazed that I've kept
my face white even when my arms and legs get tan.

So we got through all that craziness (there's 2 wards that meet in our building) and had lunch at home, then we ran back to the church for Coordinacion with Jose and then Consejo de Barrio, and then Hna Artica wasn't feeling so good so we went back home and let her rest. Then we took off again and finished our day with dinner with the Hernandez Monterrey family that actually lives just a block away from our house. They're calm, good people.

And that was our Sunday! It didn't rain today, which was sort of a miracle.

Saturday, June 11, 2016 -- Month #15 - Week #69 - Day #481 - Las Flores, Villanueva, Cortes

Today we went the nice Evangelical lady that prays for 5 minutes! Except we got the extended version that lasted for 7 mins, all the "my God"s included. Sweet lady, though. She said she'd come to Church with us, so that's pretty awesome. Keeping our fingers crossed.

And we went to have our lunch appointment, and we waited 2 hours for the food to be ready (and checking to see if the elderes were gonna come about 4 times), so meanwhile we helped one of the hnas in the house that's a teacher transfer grades. So that was kinda neat.

My lunch on Sunday (we bought some food to financially
help out a family and I saved it because we already had a dinner
planned and we didn't have food for the next day).

It also rained while we were waiting, but we were under a roof at the time, so we were good! But we finally got our plates of pasta and rice and ate and ran back home to quickly pick up a few things and then head back out to conquer the world! With love, of course, lots of love.

And we had an awesome day, number-wise, and we also got a joven to come with us! She said she loves coming with us, so we'll be taking her out a lot. I think it's a good experience for the youth to have their eyes opened a little and appreciate their testimonies of the Gospel. Because today all we did was go around correcting doctrine. We only actually got through an actual lesson twice, and all the rest of the time we were trying to clear up misconceptions. Which just made me so grateful that Katharine (the joven that came with us) has a firm testimony and was happy to share it, because we heard some things that made absolutely no sense. But that's what some people believe. So we tried not to fight, and always invited the person to pray and ask God, because they obviously didn't believe us. And that's all we could do.

But we had a good, testimony-building day, so we're happy. Tired, as always, but happy. Hna Artica is doing well, seems a little more relaxed and we take more turns when we're teaching. I'm seriously amazed at this girl. I hope we get the entire change together!

Friday, June 10, 2016 -- Month #15 - Week #69 - Day #480 - Las Flores, Villanueva, Cortes

Happy 1 Month to Hna Artica! My baby's all grown up! It's awesome that she's made her first milestone and I love her.

Hna Artica and I!

We had 12 Semanas and then went looking for a follow up contact and she wasn't home, so we went contacting around and taught another lady that didn't want us to come back. But we had lunch again with all the elderes and came back home and rested a little bit, and then our entire afternoon got all jumbled up.

But we were able to have a good cita with an hna that we shared about the Restoration, and she believes us, so that's awesome. We're still working with her to have her come to Church with us, but that's a sticking point with everyone here.

And then all the elderes came over and dedicated and blessed our house, so now we can officially be alright at home. And then we ran and had another 2 citas, and then over to the church again to have Coordinacion with the elderes and Jose, our new Ward Mission Lider, but then the elderes backed out, so we just got to know each other a little and we set another meeting for Sunday. And then we ran by for another cita but the lady wasn't there, so we headed over to Hna Ada for a birthday dinner because today is E Contreras's birthday. And we got there SOAKING wet due to the rain that decided to pour down upon us as we were leaving the church after Jose. Completely, completely soaked. I'm seriously buying an umbrella on Monday.

But we got to Ada alright and then we waited some more for the elderes to come (see a common theme here? I'm really good at patience by now!) And we celebrated E Contreras. So happy birthday to him!

And we finished our night and came back home, still sopping wet. We were recently informed that June is the month of rain here in Villanueva...because I don't remember it raining so much in SPS. Anyways, had a good day and we're tired!

Me playing around with camera exposures... makes the clouds look cool!

Thursday, June 09, 2016 -- Month #15 - Week #69 - Day #479 - Las Flores, Villanueva, Cortes

Weekly Planning! And we had a lady make us lunch! We paid her 40 lemps a meal and she also cooks for 3 other pairs of elderes...basically our entire district. But we're trying to see if there's some hnas in the barrio that would be willing to give us lunch, and if not, we'll probably end up with this lady that cooks for all the other ward's missionaries. But she's super sweet and calm, and has a good sense of humor with all the elderes's shenanigans.

And when we ran around trying to find people to visit and teach, and we did manage to find some. We also found a lady that took literally 5 minutes to say the closing prayer of the lesson. That was the longest prayer with the most repeticions of "my God" that I have ever heard in my life and my 15 months in the mission. So that was a special experience. Sweet lady, though.

Oh! And our landlady is also having a little pila built on our balcony so we don't have to haul all our wet clothes up and down the stairs to the big pilas downstairs. So that's really nice of her. She's an inactive member, but loves the missionaries, so we'll try to visit her and help her to come to church on Sunday.

The first phase of our little pila! It's really tiny!

Wednesday, June 08, 2016 -- Month #15 - Week #69 - Day #478 - Las Flores, Villanueva, Cortes

It has been raining every single day/afternoon/night up to now. And we always walk around wet because this morning my umbrella finally broke. I'll have to go buy another one next Monday.

We finally got some speed going with the 12 Semanas training! Yeah! Training's fun because you get a nice little reality check of how far from PME you've gotten in your teaching habits and you can get back on track. It's always a good idea to review PME frequently and follow what it says!

And we had some more lessons in the afternoon, we had 2 young people accompany us! Yay! I'm really excited with this ward because they really want to come with us on visits. So awesome. Anyways, did that, and it was raining the entire afternoon, and then in the night we were gonna teach Alberto (the investigator husband of the sister of the hna that we did the FHE with the bishop on Monday) about the true character of Joseph Smith (that is specifically what he asked for...the truth about Joseph Smith...very interesting topic) and he wasn't there. So we talked with his wife and shared a scripture with her and got drenched in the rain walking back to our house. Good day.

Tuesday, June 07, 2016 -- Month #15 - Week #69 - Day #477 - Las Flores, Villanueva, Cortes

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LYNDSEY!!!!! I love you so much, sweet girl, and hope you have an awesome day! (she's the only one in my family that I've missed 2 birthdays in my mission, sorry, baby!)

My sister Lyndsey!

Today we had our Zone Meeting and got to know everyone in our zone...it's kinda weird going from Copan where there were 5 pairs of hnas in the zone to Villanueva where we're the new 2nd pair. Just to recap, almost half the hnas in the mission are in Zona Copan.

And then we were exhausted so we took a nap, and then we needed to head up to SPS for some business for Hna Artica, so we got that all taken care of, and headed back to Villanueva to go leave on visits with the youth of the ward (I'm in a ward again! Whoo!) so Hna Artica and I split up and got to know some more inactives and whatnot, and finally made it back home, still very exhausted. Long day, but good.

And we found some more churches! I'm interested to see all the ones here in Villanueva. But we'll start with the first 2: Iglesia Impacto de Dios, and la Iglesia Evangelica Getsemani (I have a feeling this one might be a repeat, I don't remember).

So yeah. Tomorrow's Wednesday. I like Wednesdays.