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!