Week 9: Preach the gospel and if necessary use words!

1st baptism: grandpa baptized his grandson...Kaden always wanted to be tall--looks like he got his wish!

Hola mi familia!!

• Here's my daily routine: wake up at 6:30am (sometimes I wake up earlier just to study) 
• Exercise (normally consists of trying to do situps and pushups) I'm trying to keep the weight off.
• Take a shower (I love when we actually have running water!!) 
• Sometimes we will go get some pan for breakfast (They have the best bread here!!) 
• A las 8 we study personal. 
• A las 9 Companionship study for 2 hours.
•  A las 11 we go out to an appt or something. 
• A las 12 we have lunch. 
• A las 1 we have language study (which is really hard, it is the hottest part of the day and we just had lunch so needless to say it is a struggle to stay awake. 
• From 2-8pm we have appts, contact and do missionary work!!
  A las 8 we have dinner. All of our meals we have we get from members so thats good.

 I think I am actually gaining weight. We walk a ton here. Literally it is like cross country all over again except in church clothes and sweating a ton. The good thing is, is I am actually getting use to the heat. I guess this is the cooler season. In April it is super hot. It has been raining a ton here so that has been good. I have been getting soaked, it is so cool.

 A basic meal here is rice, beans, tortillas, and some kind of meat. We have a lot of hotdogs and stuff because they are cheap. They basically fry everything in cooking oil so everything is super greasy. Oh i didn´t lose my pictures!!!! We are having a super p day today so I am at the church right now. They are splitting our area so we are going to have 4 missionaries in my ward. awesome!! Sundays are defiantly the hardest day for me. We work really hard on Sunday and it seems to be the day that I am most homesick. Anyways I will have about 2 or so hours around 12. So I'll send some pics too!!

Hola mi familia!! Lo siento our thing went a little longer than we were expecting. Everyone here is on Honduras time, which is show up whenever. It has been pretty funny because church is suppose to start at 9 but it usually doesn't start until about 9:20ish or so. Pretty funny.

We worked really hard this week. We taught a ton, contacted a lot of people, and walked a ton. I am pretty tired to say the least. One thing that is quite frustrating is that our plans seem to always fall through and then we are looking for other things to do, people to visit. We found a bunch of people but there are no addresses here, so we haven't been able to find them or get a hold of them, which is sad cuz there was some really awesome families that we contacted. We have been trying to work through the members but we don´t get a very good turnout. The secret is through the members. One of my zone leaders said something very interesting to me about this. He said that we are here to help the members preach the gospel. A lot of times the members just think that missionary work is for missionaries when in reality we are all missionaries. It is our job to preach the gospel to everyone. The best way we can be missionaries is by our example. There is a quote that I heard in the MTC that I really love, Preach the gospel and if necessary use words. The Spanish is coming a long. It is really exciting when you actually feel like you know what is going on. These past couple of weeks have been filled with me wondering around like a stray dog, wondering what is going on. But this week I actually felt like a missionary. I was actually able to understand what people were saying, and actually felt confident enough to say something.

After a HUGE rain storm!!

Kaden's nice shower

Drying out the wet clothes from the rain

Kaden's Companion Elder Lucha.

I learned something very interesting this week that I have heard but never truly understood. We have an investigator who really hasn´t kept any commitments we have given her. We are always trying to help her but she hasn´'t kept any of them. (a side note, the 3 basic commitments to a strong testimony and a constant conversion is reading and studying the book of Mormon, going to church, and praying) After we sat down with her and talked about our purpose and how we can only invite and it is up to her to make the decision is she wants to follow Christ. We came back the next day and she kept her commitments!! It was so awesome! We talked with her and while we were talking, she expressed some of her doubts. I suddenly remembered a part of one of Pres Uchdorf's talk that talked about the beauty of the Gospel. He says that isn't it wonderful that we don't have to be perfect to receive all the blessing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The best place to start following Christ is exactly where you are. Isn´t that awesome! Sometimes I start thinking that I have this perfect person and missionary to do the work that the Lord expects, but in reality it just isn't possible. In Mosiah, King Benjamin talks about that if we did everything to serve the Lord, we would still be unprofitable servants. All He asks is that we keep the commandments. Striving, Struggling, and Desiring. I know that if we read out of the BOM every day we receive strength. There is a power that comes into our lives when we read out of the BOM each day. I have seen it in our investigators. You can just tell if they are reading. I am so happy to hear (it brings tears to my eyes) that you guys are reading the BOM. My heart is so full of gratitude to hear that you guys are doing awesome and growing closer to our Savior.

A room with a view. From Kaden's patio.

Funny story
So every week we go and eat at this members house. We have gone and eaten there a couple of times. But anyways, we walk in and sit down and I look up, and there are these huge spiders all over the ceiling. I couldn't take my eyes off of them. Needless to say my appetite wasn't as big as it use to be. 2 weeks ago when we were eating there, there was these two things of cheese  I didn't know how long they had been sitting out. I picked up the plate and titled it and juice came running down. I was sick. I couldn't eat this. I looked over at my comp and said "quiere me queso?" and he said oh si! I was so grateful I didn't have to eat that. During the dinner the lady asked why none of the gringos liked the cheese. I just said that people from the US are weird.

 I love you guys, I pray for you guys. I am so grateful to hear that you guys are doing awesome. Thanks for you support and the love you show, the prayers that you give for me, my companion, and especially for my investigators. Thanks for you love, We are so blessed to have what we have. To have a family that is sealed and is active, and strong in the gospel. It is very rare to find a family that has been sealed and is strong in the gospel here. But that is the goal. That is where we want our investigators in a year. Anyways I love you guys so much. Thanks for all you are doing.