Elder Madero's Best 2 Years!: 2 Years and 3 Birthdays!!!

So usually missionaries will make homemade covers (using old Liahona magazines) for their agendas and usually their last agenda of the mission is usually pretty funny... this is my last agenda before I go home! hahaha everyone loves it!

Well, today is a pretty big day for me in my life... I have reached the 2-year mark in my mission, now I'm just waiting for the day that I get on the plane! And today is also the day that I turn 21! (I still feel like I am 18!) Oh, and isn't it a little strange how I am celebrating my Third birthday on my 2-year mission?! Oh well! I'm sure that doesn't happen too often, but I like it! Everyone always dreams of their 21st birthday, and having the craziest birthday party ever! (drinking emoji) But good thing I am not home for it! Instead... I will be teaching Romans 6 to a group of Seminary students! Yay! (Pretty crazy, right?)

Anyway, this is also a big day because this will be the last letter that I will be sending to you all from my mission.

The Last one!

I honestly cannot believe it! I am actually going to see my family next week. That obviously brings me a lot of joy... but also, I remember that that means I am leaving this country. I love Honduras so much! Soo much! I feel bad for whoever talks to me when I get home because they are going to hear nothing but how great Honduras is and how amazing the mission is!

This past week has been super awesome! Well last, last Saturday was awesome because we have a group activity! We did a Game Night. Where everyone participates and we play group activities where everyone laughs and has a great time.The elders before haven't done many activities before so it kind of surprised everyone. So we wanted to make it special so we even decorated the house/chapel! Everyone had a great time and we served Tajaditas Preparadas! They are like banana chips with ground beef... one of my favorite plates here!! We invited EVERYONE!! And a lot showed up! The room was full! We watched the John Tanner video and everyone had a teardrop in the corner of their eye... and then we went into action and started the activities! We threw the kids (not literally...maybe) into the other room and had them watch Moana while the big kids to play in the other room. Because inside the house is all one room...there was a lot of noise and echo! But everyone still had a great time! The best part about it... is the last week we had some inactive people come to church and some investigators that showed up for the first time! It was awesome! It really paid off!

So this week we´ve been concentrating on the investigators that we currently have and tried to help especially with whatever challenge they've been having. Its been pretty interesting, we´ve had to drop some investigators as well as finding more investigators within the same household sometimes! So on Friday, some members took us to the river in El Chaguiton! We wanted to see if it was suitable to have a baptism there or not. It was a lot of fun. But an eye opener because they told us that river was their water supply. That is the water they use to wash their clothes, dishes, etc. And... it isn't really close to their house! I think sometimes we take the running water that we have in our house for granted! But anyway, it was beautiful out there! And well I don't know if you caught it but... Yes, I mentioned the magic B word! Baptism! This last Saturday was the day that I hit 2 years! And what better way to celebrate two years than to baptize?! We had the amazing opportunity to baptize Lucidalia this weekend. She is so amazing! She is a 50-year-old mother that loves the gospel! She is always happy and energetic! Since the first time we taught her, she always agreed to everything that we taught. Of course, she would have some reasonable questions but she understood everything! When it came down to do the interview I really wanted to make sure that she really knew what she was doing and make sure that it was something that she wanted to do. So I asked her the Pre-interview questions and she understood everything... and after she said yes to the final question there was a moment of silence... (I felt like I shouldn't say anything) and after a while my companion says... "Well, do you have any questions?" and then out of nowhere, she starts crying and crying and crying! I look at my companion and give him the "way to go, you know that she hates questions" look! hahaha just kidding! But yeah, she was crying and she expressed her feelings to us. She said that she couldn't believe that the time has finally come for her baptism, this is something that she has really been wanting to do for a while. She said that she knew that this will bless her life as well as her family. And there we had it, just what we wanted to see before her baptism. We were able to see that she REALLY wanted to get baptized and for the right reasons. And she mentioned that she wanted me to baptize her. I gladly accepted, she didn't know what Saturday meant for me, but it was the perfect way to celebrate my 2-year anniversary. The day of her baptism went perfectly. Some her family went (which was just what she wanted) and we went to Ward building that San Marcos belongs to in Choluteca. (The convenient thing about baptizing in Choluteca is that the water is warm because it is so hot outside!) We had the van FULL of people that didn't want to miss her baptism! It was awesome. One of the best moments of my mission was when she went into the water and she came out of the water in tears. Tears of joy for being baptized in the true church of Jesus Christ and for being baptized by someone who has the authority to baptize and be clean once again.

This is Seydi and Ena, two of our investigators who are getting baptized next! :D

So this was my last Sunday in San Marcos. It was very sad. I had to give my last testimony/talk. After teaching these same people every day and sharing my testimony you´d think that I would be completely used to it, but I don't know what happened...all that I remember is that when I went up and testified one last time to them the truthfulness of this church, and sharing my personal testimony... I ended up in tears. I think it was due to the fact that the church was full. If you remember correctly, our first Sunday here we had 15 people at church, the regulars. But this Sunday was different...we had THIRTY people at church. It was FULL! A mixture of the regulars, inactives, and investigators. Especially the investigators that I care sooo much for! It was funny because when I sat down I looked around and they were all in tears!

What a bunch of crybabies... haha!

I will never forget when we stood up and sang 152 for the last time... Para Siempre Dios Este Con Vos.

Song of the week:

Hardest Thing I Ever Loved to Do by Nashville Tribute

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Elder Madero

Miraflores A-B (Opening area)

-Elder Westburg

-Elder Carter

-Elder Marin

Villa Olimpica B

-Elder Agren