November 16, 2015

 

Yes, I did recieve my package, thank you so much! Contact solution was much needed as were the vitamins and peanut butter. And Navas´s first name is Jose. I think. And the marriage papers are a headache. Really we do everything. The Honduran government is such a joke. bueracracy. It´s horrible. And the lawyers we work with are terrible. I want to chew them out but they´re working for free so I can´t. 

What´s wrong with skip? Poor guy, find somebody good to watch him. 

Already going out to AZ huh? Sounds like fun, that´s funny about the clothes. What other activities are you gonna do? I guess you won´t be bringing the guns since you´re flying? Don´t ruin my clothes, I need them for BYU! 

And hey, how´s my truck doing? Anybody driving it? 

And curtis, way to go! First in the school, that´s pretty good! Is he working out? Fishing? And ster is looking great in the picture. The next Ty Detmer right there, I hope he´s really gonna play. 

And I´m glad Kirk is in St. Johns. Good for him and good for dottie and kendall. How´s Kirk doing? 

Glad Seminary´s going well. I know how you feel-every now and then we´ll get into some heavier stuff with long time investigators or members and I just wanna tell them to go to the temple and then they´ll get it. Have fun in St. Johns. I wrote them a letter and never sent it, maybe this week. And hey, go find me a girl in St. Johns. 

And washing his sheets every 6 months...haha that made me laugh. 

How´s the ward doing? Bishop Garrett hanging in there? What´s Adam doing? Any gossip, new families? 

And I know, I´m so excited for christmas. We´re gonna die. Every house gives us tamales-everyone wants to feed us. I´m talking filling the fridge and eating 2 or 3 in every house, and multiply that by 50 lessons a week...woo. 

Also, what´s going on with the church´s new policy? We haven´t heard anything, hondurans couldn´t care less, I just saw it on the internet when we were sending dats this morning. 

Alrighty, here´s my updates. 

This was just a long week. Rain every day. I don´t mind working in the rain but when you don´t have dry shoes and your clothes don´t dry it kinda wears on ya. My agendas always get destroyed, and we´ve quit bringing books-another week of teaching with people´s family bibles and hoping they´ve got a book of mormon. Made me really appreciate the Book of Mormon and how much we need it to understand the gospel! It was kind of just a dark week too. All the news about the terrorist attacks (and by the time the information had made its way down the grapevine people were telling us about nuclear bombs planted and all out war and who knows what) and lots of deaths and accidents among our investigators and members. Add in all the depressing news with rain and grey skies every day...for a little while there felt like we were on the brink of the second coming. And when the world gets dark, the gospel is always a small, shining light-something to hang on to. 

We´ve still been working like crazy-I think this week we only pulled out 40 lessons but I´m not complaining. One thing I´ve really learned is how much easier it is when we´re truly dedicated-fully given to the work. I´ve talked alot about our will and surrendering our will and being fully consecrated in the work and all that-I don´t ever expect to acheive the complete submission of my will but its sure a whole lot easier when I can quit fighting between my will and God´s will. I no longer have to question, I no longer have to have an inner battle about what action I should take-I just do the right thing because its what I do and it´s who I am, especially regarding my work habits. My favorite quote from preach my gospel is something like this ¨The secret to missionary work, is work!¨ from E. T. Benson. I´m a believer in that for sure. 

I still find myself growing more and more conservative every day. I´m seeing how poorly  Honduras´s left leaning programs are ran, and I (and a surprising number of Hondurans) wish that Donald Trump would just buy Honduras and run it already like he joked about doing. Not that I like Trump but he´d sure do a better job than the current group of narcos and puppet politicians. 

Another thing I´ve been thinking about, is how the church really is guided by the Lord. For example, when the Family, A Proclamation to the World came out, nobody was even thinking about gay marriage or that even being a problem, and now, thanks to those revelations, we have the firm doctrine on the subject and have something to guide us. What I think will be interesting is all this talk about religious freedom-what´s gonna happen in the coming years to make the church´s focus on relgious freedom necessary. 

Another thing I´ve learned! Be part of the people. Hondurans are really sensitive about feeling inferior-if there´s any hint of snobbery or superiority they´ll cut you out real quick. I´ve just learned to take it. Eat what they eat. Dont´get bothered with dirty things or unpurified water or breasts or dead people or gangsters. I´ve gotten real comfortable with having a ton of dirty naked children hanging off of me. I really have a blast with the people, probably too much fun. They´re good people. 

And they have given us so much food this week! multiple dinners, snacks, soda-I threw up on sunday night coming out of a house, got out just in time-A big lunch, then someone else gave us pizza with soda, then someone else gave us cake, then then we ate a huge dinner, then we go to the last house and more cake and soda-just shoving it down our throat. 

Oh, and our baptism! Super solid. We started working with a less active family, got them actived and headed towards  a temple sealing, and they present us their nephew who recently came to live with them. He was super solid from the begining, and always went out to make visits with us even before he was a member. His uncle baptized him and I couldn´t be happier with the progress the whole family has made. His name is Kevin Mungia. 

 

 

I think that´s all I got for you all, I´ll be emailing for a little bit more If I think of anything more. Love you all to death and I´m excited for AZ pictures and stories! 

E. Hansen