This week has been beautiful and so stressful!
On Tuesday we finally made it to go and visit the family of Fernando. His sister, Karla was there and she was showing us pictures of Fernando. Hermana Neibaur, Karla, and I were all sitting there crying our eyes out. We all kneeled and each said a prayer, including Karla at the end. I tried to keep myself somewhat together, until we left. We went into the street and then I couldn't hold anything in anymore. So there I was, standing in a dirt street of Honduras, bawling my eyes out. Just so everyone knows, everybody knows everything and sees everything. I told my companion we needed to go more off to the side for my meltdown, but we didn't quite make it there. Of course one of the neighbours saw and told us that we needed to come in. She gave us some pila water, and I have to say that was the best water I have ever had in my life. In every lesson that day I started tearing up. I was just like I am so sorry I am such a mess! But I promise this is the greatest and most amazing gospel in the entire world. Karla asked us if we could go to the grave and pray that Fernando could rest in peace. So we pulled the Elders in so that we could go and dedicate the grave. On Thursday we all trecked up to the cemetary with Fernando's family and dedicated the grave. The cemetaries here are quite a bit different then in the States, but we still had our own nice little funeral. On Sunday Karla came to church, and in our class for the investigators the Elders taught about the Priesthood. Later we got to tell Karla that the Priesthood, the power of God, is what we used to dedicate the grave.
We also had two beautiful baptisms this week! The first one was on Friday for Marco. It was beautiful, and the Spirit was so strong, and it was the smoothest baptism I have had yet! The second one was for Allen. This was kind of a miracle baptism. We have been working with Allen since I have been here in Campana, and his entire family is members except for him. He has never wanted to get baptized, and we had kind of given up on him. He was always coming to church though. However, this Monday we had a Family Home Evening with their family (we made banana bread too :) and we were teaching about the temple. We brought a picture of the Tegucigalpa temple and his little brother, who is 8, gasped and said "Ahhhhhhh it is soooo beautiful!" And they were all in shock by the beauty of the temple. For all of you in America, you have to understand here there aren't beautiful stunning buildings like the temple. The temple really is the most beautiful building in Honduras (I am pretty convinced of this... :) We also showed them a picture of the Salt Lake Temple, which is gorgeous and everyone here says "castilla!" which is castle when they see it. We started talking to them about how they should go with our ward in April as a temple, and Allen was like "I want to go too!" So we told him that we should have his baptism this Saturday so he could go to the temple with his family in April. And he agreed!!! What a miracle! But he told us that we could not have lots of people there. We agreed and yah. However, the baptism rolled around at 5 and there was no Allen! Johanna (one of our other investigators who is super amazing) was there (she is friends with the mom of Allen). So at 5:45 Johanna and my companion and I prayed that Allen would come. We finished our prayer, then about ten seconds later there he was! He was super nervous so we went into another room and had a kneeling prayer. I prayed first then we told him to pray. After he said he was ready. He went and changed then started getting all nervous again, but he did it! Just so you all know, Allen is the cousin of Berenice. I think there is a family thing going on here.
Right now we are also teaching like 10 young men. I feel like the Lord has a very distinct plan for this ward to have more missionaries, because all of these young men are super interested and want to get baptized. The Lord is definitely putting the desires and seeds into their hearts. We keep trying to teach the parents, and they are super not interested, but all these boys are, and they are all coming to church and being super awesome. They are little monkies and teaching them is kind of obnoxious but they are adorable. Yesterday we were teaching one named Amilkar and he was sitting there trying so hard to focus but he was so distracted. He was over there like shaking his legs but trying so hard to focus his attention. It was so sweet.
I have also been learning more this week about trying to put my faith and trust in God. We had an hour and we had to walk far away for one lesson that I thought would not even be there. I was feeling pretty negative about the whole thing, and I remembered in a talk for missionaries it talked about how we need to sacrifice our negativism and sarcasm. So I said a prayer in my heart and asked for forgiveness, and then as we were walking we found two people we are teaching that we haven't seen in a long time! Also another family that we have only taught once, and they weren't there for our other sita, pulled over and asked us when we were going to come visit them. Last night as we were walking I started feeling all down and negative again, so I asked my companion if we could pray. We said a prayer, and later we found by chance a man who had gone to church a few times in America, but had never talked to missionaries or gone to church in Honduras. We were also able to find one of our young men that is such a pain to find and have an awesome lesson with him. I know the Lord is guiding this work, and sometimes I just have to put a little more faith in him and sacrifice a little bit more :)
Well I love you all! The Lord knows each one of us and is working little miracles in our lives. By small and simple means the Lord brings great things to pass. I know the Lord works in the little things in our lives and is so aware of each one of us. The Lord truly has a plan and knows what is going on, even when I am confused and have no clue what is happening around me :)
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| Part of my district! My companion is the first gringa on the right... |
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