"Temple Open House" February 18, 2013

 

Completion and Open House of the Honduras Tegucigalpa Temple 

 



 

Elders Dockendorf (Utah) Roldan (Guatemala), Henriod (Nevada), and I.

 

"I was ticked!" February 18, 2013

This week blew by really fast. On Wednesday, I had to go to take out marriage papers for the Zone from the forsaken deserted pueblo of Conception de Maria. Okay, I told E. Dockendorf that it was my last time going there. I don't know if I wrote about the last time I went there but it was an adventure. This time I took Elder Herrera with me, we made it up in bus in 3 hours. I had called the registration office the day before to tell them we would be going up there today and they told me that it would be okay. So when we get up there, it was closed! We went to go look for the workers but we couldn't find them! So we called them and the lady told us that they were out of special paper for the registro that we needed. We started to ask her if there was any possible way that we could get her signature for the paper and she said that she wasn't in town. We then asked if we could leave the paper with them to have some other Elders come up and get them and she said that no one was in town and that it would be impossible today. I was ticked! They had told me the day before that they would have everything ready and waiting for us when we came up at this hour. We were heart broken that we had taken a bus for 3 hours just to get nothing. So we started making our way back to the bus to go down and we passed the Registration office again, but the door was open. We went in and the guy told us, "Come in, come in I've been waiting for you two." (Talk about creepy!) So we went in and he said that someone on the street said that we were looking for him to get this paper signed and filled out. And he got it all done for us. Surprisingly they had the special paper also. He called some lady on the phone and told her to get down there to sign the paper so that we could catch the last bus. The lady came down and signed it, but she looked a little embarrassed. So afterwards we told them thanks and before we walked out, I called the number of the lady that was supposedly "out of town". The lady that signed the paper's phone started ringing! I looked at her, flashed a nice smile and said "Have a nice day". That woman lied to me!

 

"The word of someone is worth alot" February 11, 2013

This week we had Transfers. Elder Ruiz had been here for 6 months, so it was his turn to leave. This transfer, I received Elder Dockendorf from Utah. This guy is huge, he played football in college. When we walk down the street, I feel like everyone is intimidated by us because we're so big! I'm taller than he is, but he's thicker. Also in transfers we received my ex comp Elder Barrera! We were both excited that we could be together in the zone for his last transfer. It should be fun. The zone is looking great, transfers helped alot. We also have just had a bunch of work fall into our laps. It has been the most busy week that I have had in this area. The family that is coming to church that I mentioned last week is still going and they are excited for the Temple Open House and their baptisms. They're great. He keeps on telling us that they want to go to the temple open house and that he will be going to church forever. And then he said something that I never really noticed before. He said," and that's true! Because the "word" of someone is worth alot, so I will always complete with it."

We also have an investigator that has just been going through the hardest trials right now. He comes to church, but he comes on crutches. Just recently in the past 3 weeks he got into a motorcycle accident and broke his leg. Later, his son was shot and murdered by some gang from Centro, his other son was stabbed various times and is in the hospital recovering. All of these happened within 3 weeks. He has been to church now for 3 weeks since the accident and is getting baptized this weekend. We're excited for him. He's just been through so much .

There is a lot of work to be done this week. We have the open house visit to the Temple on Friday, and we have a bunch of investigators to teach and get ready for the 23rd for their baptism. I'm going to be pooped next week!!

 

I felt like Bear Grylls on Sunday. When it came to Lunch time, I was scrabbling around thinking of what I could cook. I was just thinking, "What would Bear do?", but then I thought that that probably wasn't the best thing to be thinking because I was not about to catch all of the little frogs and geckos in the house to cook up a little stir fry of them. Luckily I found a packet of spaghetti and I tried out my own little mixture of fried noodles with soy sauce. It turned out to be pretty good! You never know if its a masterpiece until you try it out.

 

 

"Worth the sacrfice" February 4, 2013

This week we made the best out of the 3 days of work we were given due to the ZL Council. We had a bunch of people to visit and teach. With the Open House for the Temple coming up, we have been asked to visit as many people as we can so that they can get this once in a life time chance to get to enter the temple. We were given a ton of referrals from members of people to visit. We took the whole weekend doing exactly that.

These past 2 weeks, we have had a man and his little daughter come to church. No one knew who he was. We got to talking to him and he said that he and his 5yr old daughter have walked an hour to get to church. We asked him how he came to know about the church and he told us that his sister is a member in Tegucigalpa and told him that he needed to go to the church here in Ciudad Nueva. So he figured that he should make the sacrifice to go to church on Sundays. We went out on Friday to go look for his house. We asked around and all people said was, "Tapira? whoa, its dangerous out there, be careful." We explained that we were looking for a man and his family and we knew more or less were it was. We jumped on a bus and when we got there we looked around and it was pure desert and dry trees and brush everywhere. Luckily we found his house on the side of the road where the bus dropped us off. We didn't even have to go into the pueblo, so we were safe. We met his wife and they are both just so humble. I have seen the most prideful people in my life here... but I have also seen the most humble. It was a great feeling when they invited us into their tarp house and we were able to talk to them. They are scared to leave the house with no one watching it, but they said that going to the Temple Open House would be worth the sacrifice. We were shocked by their willingness to sacrifice. They have been waiting for us to pass by for quite some time.

"Problem solved" January 28, 2013

First time I've driven a car in 18 months!

 

When there is no water in the church on the day of a baptism, we use the back up plan!

 

 

This week we once again got robbed a couple of days of working. We had Interviews with President on Wednesday and Thursday. Interviews took forever! We are one of the biggest zones in the mission with 22 missionaries. After my interview, my companion and I went to go do house checks with Hermana Hernandez. When we walked up to the car, she asked me, "Elder Harding, do you have your drivers license?" I immediately knew what that meant... I was going to drive!! We got in and we went out to check our a couple of the houses that were close by and called it a night. It was so nice to drive again after 18months, it was like a dream come true!

We also had a baptism this weekend. We went to go to fill up the baptismal font and to our surprise, there was no water in the church. We were a little worried, but we called our ward mission leader and he called in some guys that sell water. So the truck came and they connected a huge hose all the way through the building into the font. It was a first for me. I was afraid that the water would be dirty, but it was clean. Problem solved!