"What does SOFAMERICAN mean?" September 24, 2012

What does SOFAMERICA mean? It means that I have 10 months left (dollar bill count down)!! The time has gone by so fast, I can't believe that I have been in Honduras for over a year now. I have been reading my journal entry's that I wrote last year when I was in Sagastume and I can't believe that it has been a year since I was there. I love the mission so much, Its a ton of fun. We get to go out to search and talk to everyone about the gospel and help those that need. If we're on a bus or in a taxi we just start up a conversation about religion and we share our testimonies about the things that they need to hear. The main point that we always make is that Families can be together forever. Everyone has an interest in learning how this is possible and what they need to do to achieve this goal. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is more than just a "belief" as many people here say. We find people that believe that we just need to have Faith and we will be saved. Its true that Christ died for us to save us, but just to have faith in him will not save you. To progress in this world, our faith must have actions! There are inactives that we find that say, "Oh yeah I was baptized in your church so I'm ok" and just like that they think that they are "okay" with only baptism and faith. In the Gospel of Jesus Christ there are 5 necessary steps we need to LIVE. We first need to have FAITH in the Lord Jesus Christ. Second, we have to REPENT for our sins. Third, we have to be BAPTIZED by someone that has the authority to do so. Fourth, receive the HOLY GHOST or be confirmed (Acts 19:1-6). And the MOST IMPORTANT and maybe the MOST DIFFICULT to keep and follow is to ENDURE TO THE END. Enduring to the end includes going to church and being active, reading the scriptures and just living worthily to receive the blessings that Heavenly father has in store for us. We must always live the Gospel and follow the Commandments that God has given us if we wish to progress to reach salvation.

This week went by fast. We spent some time getting the wedding settled down for this weekend. We are planning to have the 2 families baptisms on Saturday. They are both really excited and love to tell others about it. The wife of one of the families is really awesome. She told us that the owner came over one day and started talking bad about us and saying things. The mom then started to bear her testimony about the church and how she knows this is all true. She also explained alot of misconceptions that the owner had and then invited her to church so that she could know the truth also. We are so excited for them as a family, they really are very intelligent and always look forward to our visits. They also want us to visit their older kids who have moved out and have their own families. We'll see how that goes!

"In case you were wondering..." September 18, 2012

Wow, well this week went by really fast. This past week we have been working hard on making sure that all of the investigators are good and ready for their baptisms. Little Normita was baptized on Saturday. She is awesome! Her family are all members but she was never baptized. She has opened up alot since our first visit, now she is always ready and prepared to learn when we come. She said that she wants to be a missionary, but right now! So we gave her little pass along cards and she gives them out to all of her friends and the neighbors that she has. She says that she invites them all to church and wants them to learn like she is. She was really excited but nervous at the same time for her baptism. She said that people told her that when we baptize people, we just push them into a huge pool and they drown... Satan works in mischievous ways. We showed her the baptismal font and she was excited.

One of the families that we are teaching is progressing really fast. We left them all Libros de Mormon and left them 3 Nefi 11 to read. When we came back a day later, they had all read it and prayed about it. They said that it was "beautiful" and that they knew that it was true. The dad is really interested in reading about the Libro de Mormon and the fact that it took place in the Americas. He said he had read a little bit of everything. He flipped to Alma and read a chapter and then went to the beginning in 1 Nefi and read until chapter 4 and started asking about Laban and the Bronce plates and what was on them. They have a fecha for the 29th and are looking positive for this date.

We walked into our appointment that we had with the other family we are teaching and their little girl was playing with a giant one armed doll and was "feeding" it and taking care of it. I just thought it was funny because it had gotten wet from being left out in the rain and her mom was trying to take the sopping wet thing away but couldn't talk her daughter into giving it up until her doll was "asleep".

Oh just a fun fact in case anyone was wondering... the milk from a donkey is suuuppper salty and tastes disgusting to drink but really good in candys. The milk from goats is really sweet and is the second choice here apart from cows.

"Straight off the Udder" September 10, 2012

This week was a good week for teaching. We taught the references that our
District President gave us. They are all doing well and progressing, they
came to church and we ended up having 13 investigators in church! It
was great to see everyone in church. One of the families that we are
visiting works with cows and milks them to give to the factory. We
were talking to one of them and jokingly, my companion said, "Ah man
the milk is best right off the udder right?" and the kid said," Yep!".
We just stopped and looked at each other and smiled because they didn't
take it as a joke. We also found out that if we really wanted to, we
could get 6 liters of free milk off the udder... but we found it best
to just buy the processed "milk in a bag" that we find in the
Pulperias. Some day before I leave I'll have to try it out, maybe even
this week.

We are working in total for the end of this month with 3 families and
about 13 people that all have a baptismal date for the 29th. I can't
believe how ready all of these people are, it was only a matter of
time before the Lord brought us to them.

Well, I don't want to write too much, the power is out right now and
the laptop I'm on doesn't have the best Internet. Plus there is a huge
storm coming, its only a matter of time before everything goes out!

"Coincidence? I think not!" September 3, 2012

This week went by really fast. On Tuesday the AP's planned with us to do divisions. It's a new program that President wants to start, so we went and did the companion trade off and came back to La Villa. I found out on the bus that this was Elder Moore's first time outside of the city on his mission. He has 15 months and has never even traveled outside of Tegucigalpa. Lets just say he was a little excited. We were on the bus and he was just looking out the window amazed at all of the fields and the Valley. We went and got him his first stick of sugar cane later that night. Our recent convert, Zoila, went and cut it down in her backyard and gave it to us.

We had ZL Council the next day, basically took up our whole day. Actually it did take the whole day, we had to stay in Tegucigalpa for the night with the office elders.

We finally made it back to La Villa on Thursday and we went to teach the girl that was going to be getting baptized. She is doing a lot better a understanding everything and prays. She was baptized last Saturday. She and her mom were really proud and happy that she chose to be baptized. Its been hard on the mom, she just moved here about a year ago after her husband passed. The family is doing strong now that they are going back to church.

We had a really cool experience yesterday. We had received 2 new family references this week from the District President. So we went out yesterday afternoon to contact and teach them. We went on a drive up in the hills to get to their house. Where they live is really flat and green and has a bunch of cows. When we showed up, they were really friendly and open to us. We talked for a bit and then the wife said, "So tell me about the church, whats the schedule? So when I go next week I wont be lost" we started talking about the church and explained the importance of family and the message that we bring. Just from listening to them talk before the lesson we could tell that family was important to them. They told us that as a family they say their prayers together in the morning and before they go to bed. At the end of the lesson you could feel the difference in the setting. The wife then told us that it was a huge coincidence that we showed up today because just the night before, the husband had said in his prayer "please send someone to our house to teach us more about the things of God and the plan he has for us." Coincidence? I think not. It was awesome me, the district president and my companion all looked at each other and all gave each other "the look" and knew that this family was ready and prepared to hear what we had to say.