Feliz Christmas!

I dont even know where to start! I cannot believe it is already christmas again!! Remember exactly a year ago I was saying the same thing! haha So many things have happened during these days, sadly enough, I am going to have to summarize a little bit.

First of all, we baptized Cynthia!! Whattt?! She is another truly amazing convert! The whole story with her is a witness that everything truly happens for a reason! The baptism went great! Everything went smoothly! She was soo happy! She is 17 and is really, really animated to go on a mission! 

Second, let me tell you guys a little story first... maybe some on know, maybe some of you dont, (my parents love telling everyone about it) well, about two years ago one of the donkeys that we have bit my finger. It was a very embarrasing moment because you know that donkeys are not agressive at all... and everyone always asks: why was your finger in his mouth?! What happen was that my family went to Utah for a weekend and left me home alone, and I convinced my parents that I could take care of the ranch on my own for a weekend. Well during that month ive been trying to break our donkeys so that we can ride them right? Well the night they left, i was finishing up that breaking session with the donkey for the day and i was giving him his prize and feeding him food, then oops! There are huge teeth around my finger!! hahaha Well heres the thing, in El Paraíso, there are donkeys that just walk around. Literally. Just lingering around, eating some grass here, some there, everywhere! And it freaks me out. Sometimes we have to go through a road and theres a donkey there...we usually just take the long way around! haha well this certain time I wanted to take a picture with one of the donkeys and it became one of those PERFECT TIMING moments! Check out the donkey picture below! lol

Third, we had an epic christmas conference has a mission! Pretty much the whole mission go together and we had a spiritual conference together and we had time to bond, play some sports and catch up with some old friends! It was so much fun! Then we all got little gifts thanks to some families that donated them up in the states! Thank you so much!! 

Fourth, speaking of presents, during the conference they started handing out packages for the missionaries, I was very surprised when I heard my name!! I got a package from the Jones family, and then, after a while, I hear my name again!! WHAT?! Thank you soooo much to the Jones family and my family for the awesome packages!! It means so much to me!! :)

Fifth, well today is PDay, so like always, we were together as a zone. The elders got together and came up with this idea, that we give the hermanas an awesome gift! We´ll cook for them! As well as do a Secret Santa gift exchange! Which was incredibly fun!! I had Hermana Benson. She is a new missionary so I bought a cool honduras shirt and because there is a shirt printing place here in paraíso, (who is also an investigator) I got a good deal and I was able to write Benson on the back of the shirt! It was awesome! 

This morning we got together and we made really good waffles! And we usually split the costs of the food, but this time, we didnt charge them so they were super happy! It was a really great start to christmas!

Alright that is it for now, but I am SOO excited to talk to my family tomorrow!! I cant wait! 

Amazing Experiences This Week!

Well this has been an awesome week! 
The best part about it were the awesome experiences that we had! Ok so i´ll start with one...

So on the mission we have this goal, the Abrir La Boca goal. We are supposed to contact 24 people a day, thats including having lessons with invesitigators and lessons with members. Its usually a challenge to cumplir. So this one night, it was almost time to go home and we wanted to do that last 24 abirir la boca right? So we do it! We contact this one house with the door closed. Annnnnnnndddd.....that outcome that you think is going to happen, that perfect missionary story that everyone always talks about...doesnt happen. We meet this nice older guy whose name is Felix with his wife. They let us in and let us share a message with them, they were not positive at all. We wanted to hurry up and leave honestly haha. But then once we got up we asked if there is anything we can do for them...lavar la pila, lavar ropa o trastes, lavar el perro, cocinar, o como sea! (that usually makes them laugh!) but then the mom says well, you guys can talk with my son, he is going through a really hard time. And we look at the back corner of the house and we see this man that you can tell has been crying. So we said Yes of course! So we put a cita with him. We go back the next day and he is really positive! He just went through a divorce and his kids kicked him out of his house. We felt like we had to teach him about the Book of Mormon, he said he is really excited to read it. We go back after a few days and he read about 10 chapters! what?? He says he is obvisouly still curious about the veracity of the book which is understandable. We taught him about the Restoration and how he can know if all of this is true, and he says that it all makes sense! Which is what i always say and why i love this gospel! IT ALL MAKES SENSE! While we were testifiying of the truth of the church, he really opened up to us and says that hes learned that everything happens for a reason, he really believes that us showing up that very night was meant to be, he really needs help and he really hopes that we are the ones that can help him. I know we are. He left for a 15-day vacation but he says he is really exciting for reading more! and of course, praying.

Next story! 

So I have to explain some things first, three weeks ago, apart from our usual investigators, there was this investigator that went to church that wasnt someone we invited, but some other member. But she lives far!  She went two weeks in a row, but then stopped. While she was at church we wanted to visit her but she would always say that she lives too far and its really hard to get there, but she´ll just keep going to church. The thing is that she stopped going to church! She hasnt gone for like 2 weeks or something. So this particular day we dont have much planned, we are just kind of walking around talking with people but no one is positive. I honestly didnt have much motivation, not because I was tired or anything, I just had pereza... but I think for a reason! We were walking past the bus terminal and I remember looking at a bus, thats says Los Llanos-El Paraiso. I had a feeling that we should go to LosLlanos to look for that invesitigator and help her go to church again. (Lets take a little pause here: Los Llanos is an area farthest from El Paraiso, only way to get there is on bus for 10 minutes. We have nooo idea whats over there, the people only say that its just mountain and not many houses, and there is no cell phone reception over there so we cant just call). But we had the motivation to go over there and everything will work out. Resume) So we get on the bus and we go to see what happens! The bus drops us off, and we start walking to what people told us should get us to some houses. Contacting along the way we meet a bunch of cool new people! Just like Morristown, everyone pretty much knows each other. So they tell us about some members that live hasta ayaaaaaa! far! So we go! Luckily enough, theyre there! Well just the daughter, which is really all we needed because she was the one who invited Ingrid, the invesitigator who went to church. So we go there and she says: Wow! What are you guys doing here?? We tell her we are looking for Ingrid, and she says, its far....are you ready? We say ready for what? She says To go! Ill take you guys there! We have to down that road pass the river ad go up that mountain. So we got really lucky she was so willing to help us! We start walking and we get to the river, when we see that there are some parts where there was running water my comp and I turn around and start picking up rocks to be gentlemens so that the hermana doesnt have to get wet. We grab the rocks and when we turn around shes already on the other side.......... that was embarrasing haha! 

So we finalllly show up to the house, praying she is even home! and guess what? Shes home!!! So we talk with her and hse is super happy we were there! We taught and she is super positive and we animated her to keep going to church and she was so willing! The fact taht we made it all the way out there really made her realize that isnt just another person. We were out there most of the day but it was all worth it! We were sooo happy we followed the prompting to go on this adventure when we felt it! But did I mention we missed the last bus that takes us back to El Paraiso?.........

Anywayyyy... another story! 

So we have this investigator that I told you guys about before who is super positive! Her name is Cynthia. So heres the thing, shes been reading the book of mormon and has been praying, she feels like she has recieved an answer to her prayers and she really wants to get baptized. Theres one problem, she is 16 and her mom does not let her for some unknown reason. No one really even knows who the mom is because she just works and then hides herself in the back of house! So it is really difficult to talk to her! I keep telling Cynthia that I really want to talk to her mom, I dont have pena, Ive done it a lot of times. But each time, she just kinds of says Ummm... I dont want my mom to get mad, so i dont think its a very good idea. This has been happening for about 2 weeks. Members have been trying to help us and talk with the mom and she keeps saying no. Even family have told her but still no. But then one day, while doing divisions with Elder Garry, I felt the need to go to Cynthia´s and do the baptismal interview, even without the baptismal permission of the mom. We find Cynthia at the house and we do the interview, she passes! Now here the really cool part... During the baptism interview, the grandma came to me and said, Hey when you guys are done, can you give me a prayer? (She said it while tapping on her head, meaning she wants a blessing, and then she went to the back room) So I say Of course! We get done with the interview and then we Cynthia, Well your grandma wants a blessing, and it is the perfect excuse to go see your mom while we are at it! So Cynthia leads to the back room where the granma and mom are, of course the mom is REALLLY surprised. And we state our business fast, saying we are here to help her mom. We give the grandma a nice blessing and then we just kind of sit there and break the ice with the mom, after while of course, we talk about the baptism. We talk to her about what baptism really is and why it is of great importance. We had really nice talk with her, which is was a little hard trying to gain her confidence at first. So then we took out the baptism registro and and said, Look everything is ready, your daughter has the desire and she is prepared, all we need is your signature, and....she accepted!! Not only that but she wants to go to the baptism!! 

We left there and Elder Garry and I were just in shock how everything just worked out perfectly! Once again, I can see the Gods plans are always better than ours, we always need to be ready to follow them when the time comes. Doing the interview, then the grandma saying that she needed a blessing, was part of Gods plan, I know it!

I´m Staying!!

I am staying in El Paraíso for another change!

Well first, the big news of the day: I am staying in El Paraíso for another change!(6 weeks) Woohoo!!! 
 I love it here! And I am so happy that I will be here for christmas and for new years! Its gonna be a blast! 
The best part is that I am still with my kid! He is awesome! We are always having the greatest time! Literally one of the best people Ive met on the mission! Elder Guerra baptized for his first time! His name is Luis Fernando! He is super cool and super pilas! His whole family from Teguz came down for the baptism! 

Today for P'day we played Soccer at the really cool field in Danli with some elders from the Valle Verde zone. 
So much fun! There isnt that much new for this week, but we are super excited for this week knowing that we are not getting changed! 
Now we are off to go buy some christmas lights....

Awesome experiences this week!

Hey guys! 

Well this was a great week! 

I just can't stand how lucky my kid is! He is having sooo many awesome experiences his first change! Things that ive witnessed like after 3 months on the mission! He is lucky to start in an awesome area with awesome people!

 The thing about this place is that it is a town like Wickenburg. El Paraiso is like a small city type of thing. Really well developed. Its like living in Teguz without the mountains, the heat, the prideful people, crazy taxis, and especially without the violence.

 So, the people actually leave their doors open! The people are really open! I think ill share a couple awesome experiences from this week:

One of them is totally awesome, but of course it all builds up so i need to start from the beginning.

So last change we worked alot with inactive families. We found some families who really liked us helping them. One of them was Fam Vallecillo. We kept coming by and teaching them and animating them to return to church, and it worked! That obviouisly made us really happy. But we didnt see all of the blessings until now. About two weeks ago we were teaching them and then we left, then this joven was passing us and then we contact her, she was really positive! We asked where she lived and she said Right there! Pointing to the house that we just left. Turns out that she is family with Fam Vallecillo! So we´ve been teaching her a bunch and shes gone to church a bunch. She has been incredibly pilas mostly because of the help of the ACTIVE family vallecillo! Last week we had divisions with our ZLs here and I took Elder Garry with me to teach her, we felt we needed to go more deeply into the importance of the book of mormon. So we had an incredible lesson! A few days after we went back to verify, and we asked if she prayed for an answer from god about the truth of the book of mormon, and she said Yes. But she didnt want to share her experience (which is fine.. thats really personal) So then we asked her, What conclusion have you come to? She said, I really want to get baptized. But... the problem is my mother, I dont know if she will give me permission. She is 17 and super positive! A true convert! Tonight we will find out if her mom is going to give the green light to get baptized! I truly hope so, the way everything worked out there is no way that she cant. We are just got to keep praying. Its crazy that if we never started with the inactive family and activating them like we did, we would of probably never been here!

Ok so heres another cool Paraiso story: Last change elder Medina and I were contacting and we passed this house, and so we contacted it. Inside were 3 young adults. 2 hembras and 1 varon. The dude I can tell from the start was this cooool guy with long hair. We said who we were and what we wanted, to share a message of Jesus Christ. They jsut kind of laughed and looked at the dude, he just kind of chuckled. I was little offended, so i said Whats so funny? They let us in and they said something like Cristian doesnt believe in religion, he is reallly smart. He studies astronomy!

 I was like, Ohhh realllllly? So we started with a prayer and we just started talking to him, hearing his point of view. Then after a 15 minute lecture of his thoughts of why their is no God, it was our turn. No using the Bible or anything, just pure logic. I tore down all of his theories haha it was kind of embarrasing for him because his friends were totally convinced by us, they truly saw that we were on to something. We left that lesson with cristian agreeing with us that there IS something out there watching over us that created everything, and that anyother day we can come over and teach a little bit more of our beliefs. We didnt really talk much to his friends because he was really interesting.

After a couple weeks, we contacted Gaby! ONE of the friends that was there during that lesson. She let us in and said that she liked what we taught a couple weeks ago. So we taught her and her sisters and they liked it! They even accepted a baptismal fecha. The thing is that she is really caught up with exams from the university so she cant recieve us that much, so we kind of let her go just a little bit because we can never find her. 

Another day we somehow ended up at the OTHER friend that was there with us with crisitian, but she was not postivie at all. When we asked if she were willing to go to church with us if she recieved an answer to her prayers from God and she said No... so we realized she isnt one of the prepared people that we are looking for. But everything ALWAYS works out in the plans of God. So last week we contact this person, (Suami) really positive. She told us really specically where she lived and when we can come! We came this week and she was superrr positive! We taught on Thursday, and after the lesson she said we can go back on Saturday! whatt?! sweet! So we go back and taught the Book of Mormon and then we asked her if she wanted to go to church, once again, I want to, but I have to ask my mom, she is reallllly catholic. So she said she is going to to talk her into it. So then we leave. FOR SOME REASON, my companion suggests we go and visit Gaby again. Its been like two weeks since we´ve gone there. So i said, sure, good idea! So we go to her house and she opens the door, after all of the greetings she says, Hey! Do you know Suami?! We were shocked and confused and we said Yes... she said that early Gaby wanted to go over to Suami´s house but Suami told her no I cant, the mormons are coming over. And Gaby then realized it was us! Then she told us that they are BEST friends. And then the things is that when Gaby realized that Suami´s mom gave her permission to go to church, she wanted to go too! And her sisters too! and not only that, but Suami is really good friends with cristian too! And at this point they havent even gone to church yet but they really reached out to us and said, look we are really worried about him. We need your guys´s help. We don't know what else to do. Gaby even suggested that we take ¨cristian with us to church¨. Gaby told us that there was this one day that she was going through a very hard time because her friend, the legendary cool guy cristian gave her a book, an antichrist book. And she had really bad feelings inside and she felt really bad and didnt know what to do... then what happen? We showed up and talked about the Book of Mormon. She said that after that, she felt alot better. And yes, they went to church this sunday and THEY LOVED IT! This week we are going to work with Cristian... its crazy how this whole thing worked out. Not only do we as missionaries love helping families be united and together forever, we also love helping friendships grow and be happily together! All of this makes me miss my friends back home... No! snap out of it! Focus! hahaha 

So those were my favorite stories from this week, we had other cool little stories here and there but I dont have much time! I miss all of you guys!

 (Today I hit 13 months... but whos counting? ;)

One of the best miracles of the mission!

     We saw this place and the only thing we thought was ¨Who´s Aquel?¨!!!!
      haha that was a really funny moment for us!

 

Ok, so I am just dying to tell you guys this story. These are the kinds of stories that make me think ¨I dont really want to go back home¨ haha I never really thought i would ever say that before the mission, but times like these make me want to stay. Alright so, my abuelos live in Mexico right? Of course as a missionary Ive learned the great importance of the gospel of Jesus Christ and I want everyone to hear and accept it! Especially my family! I always thought that it would have to be until after the mission that I would have the oppurtunity to teach and take my family in Mexico to church. Until, of course like always, our Heavenly Father sets up a plan for us. Plans that are always better than our own plans. (Isaías 55:8-9) Well it all worked out. Because I got sent to El Paraíso. Remember when I got hear I was opening area, meaning I was starting completely fresh. Getting to know all of the members from square one. Well i will talk about this one particular hermana. She was a little closed, and not that open, especially to the missionaries. But you guys know how stubborn I am haha So I kept trying to gain her confidence. I still remember that the first day I met her she didnt even let us into her house, we were at the doorstep. UNTIL...I asked ´Do you have any children´? She said she had a son and two daughters. The son is serving a mission. I asked Where? She says Mexico! I asked Where? She said Chiahuahua! I asked Where in Chihuahua? Then she said Cuauhtemoc! I said, Hermana, I have family living there! Thennn she let us in!  After a couple times we visited her we gained her trust, she started to like us! Then we had an idea! Send the reference of my family over there through one of her emails to her son. So we sent the direction and guess what happent the next week? BAM! A picture of MY grandma and family with HER son! I honestly almost broke into tears the first time I saw that picture because it is literally a miracle to me! There is nothing more that Ive wanted! And it could only have happened if I were where I am now, where I am supposed to be. I recieved some pictures today of her son with my family in Mexico eating together at the house, and the first time that they went to CHURCH! I couldnt believe it!! I am so happy!!
Today in my email I recieved a lot of bad news from back home and obviously its natural to think, Wow, it would be nice to be home and support the people in need, or try to do something about a certain situation. Then its miracles like these where I get reminded that there is nothing better that I could do for my loved once back at home, then to be here in Honduras serving a full time mission.

So my kid had his first baptism during his mission last saturday! It was awesome! Her name is Marcela. I really like this story because I relate it to my life. So theres this joven named Fabian, he is going on the mission soon to Mexico. (Everyone is going to Mexico right?) But during this time before he leaves he has been staying with his sister. Exactly like I did before I left on the mission. And during that time they got really close! (Same with my sister huh Judy??) haha and the thing is that she also has a daughter around Daisy´s age! And Fabian asked me when I got here to help him meet his goal to baptize his sister and niece before he leaves on the mission. Well we did it! He was able to baptize his niece on Saturday (The sister has been a little bit hard to do, but she goes to church every sunday!) Fabian leaves to his mission tomorrow! So the whole ward was pretty happy about that! We should be having another baptism this saturday, so we are really excited!

I recieved a birthday package from my parents this week! THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!! oh man it is soo awesome! I recieved a bunch of cool stuff! But my favorite is definately the chocolate mint candy!! My favorite! ESPECIALLY the Oreos!! But my favorite part of all, is the quadruple scriptures in spanish!! I am the only and first missionary to have that because it just came out! So everyone always gets super jealous when they see it, but it is sooo awesome!! Thank you!!

     This is my family in Mexico with the missionaries!!

        This is the family I was talking about that lives here and has the son in Mexico visiting my family! 

       
      This is a typical meal in Honduras, it is really good! 

    The Danlí Zone is the best! We are all really united and always having a great time together!

Comida Catracha!

                                                

                                               
 Did you guys know that Donald Trump won?
 Well everybody talks about it here! I guess they be talking more about it in the states though... so you may know already!


This was a great week! We are killing it in El Paraiso!
 My companion has pretty much got the hang of the mission life and now we are working hard as if im with whatever other companion thats been on the mission for a long time! I love it! 
This week of course has had its ups and downs...  the sad part was when we went on friday to confirm two baptisms for saturday and they changed their mind... i was pretty bummed out. We´ve been working with them for a while and now i can see that they do not truly have the desire to follow Christs example with baptism, but ive learned that everyone has their time!
Other than that, its been a great week because we have found a bunch of awesome new investigators! Alot of them have fechas bautismales as well! 
There was only one desafio training my new companion,..... teaching him that we have to eat EVERYTHING that the people give us. Thats been kind of hard honestly. 
Opening this area was not easy and I had to have the members learn to trust us, and part of that is we eat what they give us no matter how much we may not want to, or how full we are. Ive gotten really used to it, but it remember of when I started the mission, it wasnt easy getting used to it haha But my comp has learned now. I am so grateful for the members here in Honduras, so willing to help us even when they dont have much to offer, I have truly learned to love them a lot! 
I am so excited now that Christmas is coming around! The people in general start to change, they are nicer and alot more open to hear us preach of Christ. As well as everyone makes food( a bunch of nacatamales and torejas) and they always give it to us! :) Speaking of food, Im sure you guys have wondered... Whats the typical food in Honduras? Well one of the members bought a really awesome cookbook with all of the typical honduran food and how to make them!
 Enjoy! :) 

Sopa de Mondongo is SOO good! For a lot of missionaries (gringos) it takes them a while to get used to it because the meat is cow stomach with a bunch of vegestables. but i got used to it fast and start to enjoy it  fast because it reminds me the mexican soup menudo! 

Sopa de Res is also really common.

In El Paraiso there are a lot of returned missionaries and they are soo awesome! These are some of them, and its cool because they are always helping us out with the obra! 

One Year / My Birthday!

                                                                           I hit the year mark!! 
                                                  Of course I followed the tradition and I burned a shirt!

What a week!! I loved it! 
Well to start off... i shook hands with Elder Oaks from the 12!! 
I will never forget that powerful firm handshake he gave me! Its incredible! He gave us an amazing talk! He didnt come to shave us, he honestly talked to us with a lot of love. And of course he even cracked some jokes! One of my favorite things that he told us was that we need to really know who we are. Where we come from, and where we are going. He read us Juan 8:14 14 Respondió Jesús y les dijo: Aunque yo doy testimonio acerca de mí mismo, mi testimonio es verdadero, porque sé de dónde he venido y a dónde voy; pero vosotros no sabéis de dónde vengo, ni a dónde voy.

 The Spirit was really strong and of course we all felt really insprired. It was funny because he told us that we should be Full Time Missionaries, not part time. He said to forget about our home, forget about the elections in the US, and forget about the girl back at home...she will marry someone else! hahaha  That was an incredible experience!

 And then I received my new companion, Elder Guerra. He is from Peru! He is my son because he is coming straight from the CCM. He is SOO awesome! He has already served a mini-mission so he already knows whats up! First day, we went straight to work and he already knows so much! And guess what? he knows PERFECT english!! He studied in a bilingual school and he knows a lot! Not only that, but we have soo many similarities! For example, shows? He loves Sherlock the BBC series. Music? Classic rock and some modern stuff. I have never met anyone who has ever liked my favorite band, Phoenix. and when I asked about it, he is like OH Yeah! I love that band! AHhhhhh!! This dude is great! The members already like him! This has been such a great week! Also because on Friday I hit the year mark!! What?!?! Where has the time gone! Of course I followed the tradition and I burned a shirt! And then on Saturday, it was my birthday! Man, i definitely felt a bunch of love from the members! We ate cake at my ward mission leaders home! It was good! 

so, now Instead of counting up, the countdown begins! I should be coming home in LESS than a year now! :)

Heres a rundown of how my first year has been: 

AREAS: 

1. Miraflores, Tegucigalpa

2. Villa Olimpicia, Tegucigalpa

3. Las Unidas, Choluteca

4. El Paraìso, El Paraìso

COMPANIONS:

1. Elder Westberg (USA) (My dad)

2. Elder Carter (USA) (Stepdad)

3. Elder Marin (Nicaragua)

4. Elder Agren (USA)

5. Elder Espinoza (Peru)

6. Elder Saucedo (Colombia)

7. Elder Rosales (Honduras)

8. Elder Medina (Honduras) (Adopted son)

9. Elder Guerra (Peru) (Son)

... Nine companions under a year is wayyy to much! haha But i love getting to know new cultures and making new friends!

                                           
                                                                 ONE   YEAR!! wooohoo!!
Burning a shirt was a lot harder than I thought... I don't know how I managed to burn the 5 gallon bucket as well. LOL LOL 

Best week ever!

                                        Check out this awesome new Mountain Dew design! 
                      I dont even like Mountain Dew but I like how Honduras is getting some recognition! haha

Well this past week was a great week, but I am just wayyy to excited about this week coming up!
This is definately going to be the best week of my mission!Heres why: 

1. Well today is P-day, and its pretty awesome.

2. Wednesday the whole mission is going to have a reunion in Teguz. We are going to have a special guest visit us... guess who? Dalin H. Oaks!! :D Yeahh!!! The apostle! We are all super excited!

3. After the reunion, we are going to have our changes meeting!

4. I will be recieving another kid! Meaning... I will be training again as District Leader!

5. Friday I hit the year mark! What?!?! I cant believe it! Time has gone by way to fast!

6. Saturday we will have 3 baptisms! 

7. Sunday is my birthday!! I cant believe I am turning 20 years old!! 

   ...so yeah, this is going to be a crazy week! I am way too excited! I havent met my new companion yet, he is still in the MTC. His name is Elder Guerras is all I know. My current companion is finishing up his mini-mission. I am super grateful he came and helped me out here, I taught him everything I know and I think he has managed to learn all of the important parts! 

He lives in Teguz, he says hes coming back for the baptisms on saturday. The area is doing good! We have a bunch of AMAZING investigators! This is the perfect area to train someone!

  

                 Check out our gospel principles class! It was packed! Full of converts and investigators!!!!!

This week we had a really interesting experience, we had the opportunity to go to school and teach some kids about the church! It was really weird because all of my life Ive been taught that school and religion do not go together, and well I guess its not like that here! haha It was a fun experience but not really that productive. It was really funny for me though, you guys know how I am, I like attention. Well once we started teaching, of course there is always that class clown. I think it was karma because of how I was in high school ! haha So of course we had our laughs as the class clowns and I were messing with each other. But the thing that I love about this gospel, is that no matter what people say about our church, todo tine sentido (everything makes sense).  So we cleared everything up and there were no more questions! haha 

sorry the picture isn't the best

New Chapel!

                                                        I recieved a letter in the mail, my dad got married!!! 
                                                                            What?!? Im still in shock!
                                      ( Elder Westberg was my dad while he was on his mission here in Honduras)

Well everything is going great! 
Sorry about not writing last week I was really sick, we thought I had dangue! But everything worked out and I cured right up. We had a really good week of hard work! I love training, you know why? I am teaching my companion the all of the things that took me months to learn, and he IS learning! When he goes to his mission in Mexico he will know everything already and will get to work his first day! This is the last full week of this change, its sad knowing that we willl be seperated! haha But i am sooo grateful that he decided to come on the minimision so that he can help me here! Something that Ive realized about him is that he has not complained once! Even when its late and we´re tired, he has no problem with knocking an one more door! I love that about him! The good thing is that he will learn that through hard work and obedience we will always be blessed, he is really happy about two baptisms we will have this weekend.

Well, for about 6 months the chapel here in el paraíso has been in reconstruction, so for a long time that members and the missionaries have been assisting at the temporary warehouse looking chapel, but guess what? 

The new chapel is open!! I am so lucky to be here in this area at this time because we get to experience this haha. 

It is soo nice! It looks like if it were a 2017 model! Everything is hightech and brand new! It tooks us a while to learn how to move the curtains up and down! They are fool-proof! haha The portable tv we have here is a brand new Samsung 55´´!! HUGE!! The youth of el paraiso have been pretty sad that the building has been closed because alot of the youth, member or not, like to play soccer at the court outside. So everytime we contact people we always mention that the chapel is open again and most importantly, the cancha is brand new as well!hahaha 

  

We packed 8 people into one taxi! haha

We found a really good Mexican restaurant that is pretty authentic! 

Once we ate, I told the waitress that I wanted to meet the chef, she kind of gave me the Why? Thats weird look... (I get that a lot;) and so the chef came out and she is Mexican! She married a Honduran thats why she is down here. We made good friends with her and she even invited us for dinner when she makes Mexican mole! yumm!!

 They had this painting of the Honduras flag and the Mexican flag, I thought it was pretty cool! 

New Companion!

Well there have been some changes this week! Such assss: I recieved a new companion! In the middle of our morning studies on Friday, Elder Rosales recieves a phone call saying pack your things your leaving to your mission to Mexico today!! You have to be at the Danli stake center at 2! Wow! What a surprise! So he got everything ready as fast as he can and I tried to get the house as clean as possible to recieve a new companion! The greatest news ever was hearing that I am not leaving, that they are NOT going to close this area again!! Im so glad all of the work we´ve been doing wont go down the drain! haha So we went to Danli, and I dropped off an Elder and recieved another! I recieved Elder Medina!! He is from Tegucigalpa! He is actually a mini-missionary. He has his mission call to Mexico as well and he leaves at the end of november. A minimissionary is a missionary that is volunteering their time (time that wont count as time on the mission) to help out the current mission where they live. I am so grateful that he came!! His story is actually pretty crazy. He has been inactive for a large chunk of his life, but these last few months hes had a mighty change of heart and he decided to change his life completely, so he, alone, filled out all of his mission papers and got his mission call! And on Friday morning at around 10, he recieved a phone call from our APs saying, Hey we know this is last minute, but we need a mini-missionary quick! Can you serve a mini-mission from a month in el Paraiso? He said , Sure! The APs said, alright! you have to be at the office in TWO HOURS! what?! But he willingly accepted and now he is here! Well, im training! my new comp really doesnt know much, others that are training at least have the benefit that theyre comps have gone to the MTC, my companion doesnt have that background! haha Im not gonna lie at first I was pretty shocked and didnt believe the situation. But then I got my pilas together and got to work! haha the good thing is that my new companion is SO WILLING TO LEARN!! Alot more willing to learn than I was when I was in training lol. But he is incredible! 
We had general conference this week and it was incredible! My favorite talk was definately Uchtdorfs first talk!! It was so direct and powerful! I definately learned a bunch this weekend! Because my companion arrived in the tarde of friday, and we had conference on saturday and sunday, we didnt have much time to actually work. But we worked our tails off after the sunday conference and i realized that well, my companion loves working too! I love teaching everything I´ve learned throught these past 11 months! We had a pretty cool experience contacting on sunday. So personally I LOVE contacting.
 I love getting to know new people and them getting to know us and our message. As we were contacting, which was the first time in my companions life, we found some people that werent so positive. Some people that already assist a church and say that it is an unforgivable sin to learn about other churches. Others who say Well, you guys can come back, but nunca me van a encontrar aqui, siempre salgo. My companion would always write everyones name down, excited to revisit. But i remember I told him with a lot of confidence, they are not the ones we are looking for, there are always some that are waiting for us, just dying to hear our message, we just need to keep looking, and talk with everyone! After like 3 more doors, a joven comes out, we present ourselves and talk a little with him and he lets us in, he says that he used to talk to sister missionaries before. His best friend is a member. And he really wants to see the new chapel that we have there. So we talked a little more with him and gained his confidence so that we are not some strangers in his house. Then we taught a little and planned another appointment. He said that he is really willing to go to church on sunday, the only thing is that he has to ask his mom for permission. He has gone to the same church all of his life and has never asked his parents for permission to go to another, but he really, really wants to! We left that house, and my companion was almost in tears! He was saying, wow! Its almost too good to be true! Does that always happen? Basically I told him, no. Not always, there will be days when we dont find anything, not even dogs that wants to talk to us, but other days we find miracles, people who have waiting for us and our message. He learned, no, we BOTH learned alot from that! 
AHHHHH I love the mission!!
 I also love this oppurtunity I have in El Paraiso!! 
I am giving it everything I have, when I leave here I want to be that missionary that the ward talks about years after, and say....... that,  Ese Elder Madero si trabajo queda miedo!! Y era buena onda! haha 

As missionaries, we are not too happy about this! haha

I love COCA~COLA!!!!!!!!

                               

                                                      Saying goodbye to Elder Rosales was sad, he is such a great guy!
                                                        But he is going to Mexico!! How exciting!! Eating chile everyday! :D

                                    There was another festival in el Paraiso, and the parades always pass by our house!

                                                        This is our house!! The best house in all of the mission!
                                                                           Our house is on the top floor

                I talked to the owner as well, and she hooked us up with a water heater for our shower!! Woohoo!!

 

Our house is on the top floor, on the bottom is a paint company. So we have a pretty awesome view! Perfect for my hammock, and guess what?

! WE HAVE A WASHING MACHINE!! The only house in the mission with a washer!   :D