Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Week 8

(P-Day was postponed to Tuesday this week because of the nationwide elections in Honduras on Sunday.  All missionaries in the country were asked to stay home Saturday, Sunday and Monday for safety reasons and also to ensure that there was no appearance of church involvement in the elections.)

I'm super glad that you found out that our Pdays were going to be moved becasue of the elections because I definitely forgot to tell you that...but we stayed in for 3 days and now we are allowed out again. I did meet Elder D. We had a zone conference on Friday and he found me and said hi. He even said the opening prayer and it gives me hope that one day I will be able to speak Spanish! 

1. How do you get to Puerto on your P-Days?  Is it a lot bigger than Campana? 

We take a bus to Puerto. There are always buses traveling from San Pedro Sula. We flag them down and ride like the locals do. It's WAY bigger than Campana. Campana doesn't even have a grocery store. Puerto has several. Campana is more like a village in my opinion and Puerto is actually a city. 

2. Did they find your manila folder that you left at the church?  I hope so! 

Not yet. They looked and couldn't find it but apparently they will look again today because they forgot to check the one room where my suitcases were. I highly doubt that they will find it, though, which makes me super sad since my call booklet was in there and all the notes from my district in the CCM which I didn't even have the chance to read yet:( Hopefully one day they will return to me. 

3. You said the people that fix your lunch don’t eat with you.  Why is that?

It's a culture thing. They fix the meal and we eat. They eat separately and not at the same time as us either. 

4. Did you get a regular P-Day this week?  What did you do? 

Today is our P-Day and email is the first thing we are doing. We had study as usual and we will go have lunch at Wendy's again. Later we might watch Despicable Me 2. I need to fold laundy. P-Days are super chill. We have appointments tonight, too.

5. How was church on Sundays?  Did you have any investigators there? 

We had about half of the usual attendence because of the elections. Church was only an hour, too. Instead of 9 to 12, it was just 10-11. We usually get 170 and we had 95 attend. BUT one of our investigator families, la familia B., came to church!!!

6. What has been the most inspirational thing that happened this week? 

I really liked Zone Conference. It was all in Spanish and I could understand it! Pres Dester talked about how we can recieve revelation. But he also talked a lot about how leaders in the Book of Mormon had such great love for their people like Helaman and the 2000 stripling warriors. He compared that love to the Savior's love for us and how it is so much greater!! Also today I read in Alma about the stripling warriors and I really liked 58:11 which is when they are without provisions and they are kind of down and disheartened and they pray and the Lord blesses them with faith and hope. He didn't give them provisions, He didn't make the trial go away, but He gave them the faith and the hope to persevere. OH, and we totally had a miracle day this week. We set our weekly goals as if we were going to be out teaching everyday, but we got cut 2 days. On Tuesday we therefore had really high goals but we prayed that there would be a way for us to meet them and we did!!! And then the next day we met all of our goals again!!! It was a miracle for sure! We taught like 10 lessons each day and picked up 3 new investigators. It was amazing! 

7.  What has been the most difficult thing for you this week? 

Trying not to get annoyed with being with someone 24/7. I am so grateful for the hermanas in our casa, though.  Hna B is seriously just like me and we get along really well so someone can understand me. I just need to have patience and it's really hard. Also it is just very hard for me to have confidence in myself. I bet that's big shock to everyone out there, lol. I'm just such a perfectionist and I hate doing things I 'm not good at...like soccer last week. So it is just really hard for me to have the confidence to speak and to teach when I feel like I lack so much.  
8. What have you learned about being a missionary that you didn’t already know? 

It's really really hard for me to share things to people that I know. Like during companion study Hna P will just ask what did you learn and I just get super shy and don't want to share things. I knew that before, but I though I would be better at it on the mission and I'm not and I still really need to work on being able to open up to people. 

9.  What is the funnest/funniest thing that happened this week? Hermana G makes the most hilarious faces. Every time we are in the casa and she has a comment she raises her hand and waits to be called on to speak and it is just  super funny! She is the oldest one in the casa, but she is just super funny and acts like a little kid. 

10. What was it like washing your clothes in the pila?  How do you do that? 

It's not as bad as I thought it would be. You just put your clothes on the side with the washboard part and the other half is like a big basin of water. We use a bowl to pour water on the clothes and get them wet. The soap is like the same size as the inside of a toilet paper roll and its soap like body soap but for  your clothes. So then you roll the soap on your clothes and then use the fabric to wash the fabric because the cement pila eats clothes if you wash too hard. So you wash until they are good and soapy then rinse and hang them up to dry. It just takes FOREVER!!! The first day I did wash it took me an hour and a half. Yesterday I did laundry again and it didn't take as long. It's better when someone sits outside with you too so you aren't by yourself and there's someone to talk to. Hna B and I took turns wahsing some clothes and we just stayed out there for a few hours talking and doing laundry together. I don't feel like my clothes get very clean, but oh well. 

11. What is the weirdest thing you ate this week? 

Nothing too weird actually. They have these boiled banana things which I don't care for. 

12.  How is the language coming along? 

Eh. I think it would be better if Hna P spoke Spanish to me all the time and made me speak in Spanish, or gave me 2 seconds to say something during a lesson because she talks a lot! I can speak better than I think, though, if I would just speak. I can understand more and more every day. 

13. Do you know that I love you more than I can even begin to express? Yes:)

14. What is it like to teach people lessons?  Have you done more teaching this week? 

Yeah...just not as much as I know I need to be doing. It's easier to teach lessons than it is to teach fake investigators in the CCM. Most people are really receptive and don't usually have lots of questions or doubts. They are really open to hear our message. They just have problems reading or actually coming to church and keeping their commitments. 

15. Do you get a lot of referrals from members?  Are the members helpful and excited about missionary work?

We get about 8 a week. I don't really know what other people get, though. There are some members who come out and help us all the time and are really willing to help, but those kind of strong, committed members are few here. The ward is just so new here and the church I guess is so new as well. 

16.  What scripture passage have you read this week that meant a lot to you? 

Already answered above.

17. Do you do much cooking for yourselves? 

About half the time. Breakfast is alwasy on us and then about half the other meals. I have easy mac, sandwiches and eggs. Since we don't have an oven or really a big stove or a big fridge it is hard think of real meals to make for one person. AND the grocery stores obviously don't sell a ton or usual American food so it's been hard to think of things I can eat with the ingredients available. 

18. What clothing items do you want/need? 

I really don't need anything. I always want more athletic shirts (preferrably with a round neck since all of mine are v-neck, but I don't like super high cut ones so that might be hard to find.) Patterns are always good too. 

19.What have you learned about the Savior, or about your relationship with him, this week?  Or how has that relationship been strengthened this week?  

I don't know... The Savior loves us so much, but at the same time we have to be doing the right things to put ourselves in a position to feel that love. I have really just prayed a lot this week and really since my mission started to help me understand more and more in Spanish, to have more patience and charity and I see that I am able to make improvements all the time with HIs help. I'm still working on having a better relationship though, but I definitley think it's something I always need to remember that He loves me and He will help me in this work. It doesn't matter if I'm not perfect, the work will go on. 

In other things, I got a package from Grandma and Papa with my Christmas presents in it. I also got a letter from them:) I have not yet gotten a package from Mom, but we only get mail every Week at district meeting. If you did want to send me a binder and page protectors so I could work on putting that set of notes and lesson plans together that would be nice. If you wanted to send me a Honduran flag that would be great too! There was one Elder who got a flag for all of his companions to sign. I thought that that was a really cool idea. I do have that little banner thing, but a flag might be cooler. Also American mascara would be great. Hna P says the mascara here is terrible. My skin is also really bad here and I asked then nurse to check for more ampicillin for me. If you could send me a big t shirt from my shirts, or just a big t shirt. I always like colored pens. AND NUTELLA!!!! Sorry lol I realyl don't need these things, but if you are putting packages together they are things that I wouldn't mind having. I feel like I ask for so much, but seriously I am fine and don't need anything. 

We actually have a box with Liahona copies in it, so you don't need to send me any. I have access to some. 
The weather here actually reminds me of GA without air conditioning. There are tons of mosquitos too. Bleh. 
There are NO addresses here! Which is super weird and makes it difficutl for me to orient myself. 

Our 3 days in the house: We watched movies. We are allowed to watch Disney Movies. We watch Monsters Univ., Wreck it Ralph, Rise of the Guardians, Rio, Despicable Me. We cooked baleadas and tajadas which were super good! Hna P made chocolate arroz con leche which was really good. We did laundy and sat around and talked. It was a little boring sometimes but really fun at the same time. We made popcorn with cinnamon sugar on it and it was delicious. We also ordered pizza from Pizza Hut and that was super good!!! Obviously we still studied and such things like that. We had to call an exterminator becasue we woke up and there was a swarm of wasps on our porch and it was gross! We tried to spray them with bug spray but then some got in the house and we went on a rampage trying to kill them all. We cleaned our casa, too. 

Our investigators, if you would like to pray for them:
S. - the first investigator that got to be mine. She already feels that this message is true and we have taught her 2 times. She lives in Baracoa--by that bridge. She didn't come to church sunday but it was rainy and there were elections so we are hoping for next week. 

Familia B has a baptismal date. It is a husband and wife and two little kids. They are super sweet. She is way cute too and they are an upper class family here. 

Familia H is upper class too. It's family of 5 and the kids have come to church but the parents haven't.  Mostly becasue he is a politican and has been busy with elections. They know the gospel is true and they just need to come to church! 

Familia S...well she is 19 and he is like 60. But they hopefully will be able to get married next week. Weddings here are difficult for people because you need paperwork from the city you were born in, official papers that say you are single, you have to pay and most people don't have the money. You have to go to certain places to be married. It's a hassle, but we are helping them with that and weddings aren't like a big deal either. You go get married and go home like nothing changed. But they have 2 kids and they will get baptized after they get married. They are the ones who we have to go through the jungle to go see. 

We have 2 investigators-A and V- who will be baptized this week. A is scheduled to be baptized on Thanksgiving!  She was going to be baptized last week but couldn't because of some personal stuff.  They are both great!

Oh yeah,have a good Thanksgiving! We won't be doing anything exciting. Actually, hopefully A gets baptized!

Anyway, I survived another week!!!
les extraño mucho! Les Amo!
Hermana Gisseman

Washing clothes in the pila

The pila

My clothes hanging out to dry

A tarantula!!  I went outside to wash my Crocs and there it was!  (And I told her she needs to give me warning next time she decides to send a spider picture home!)

Tajados -- yummy!  (Fried plantains)

Our capilla (chapel)

Our beautiful Alyssa

A typical Honduran road

My tan lines -- already!

Hna P and me at church

The swarm of wasps outside

Killing the wasps (Those of you who know Alyssa know that she is absolutely terrified of bees -- so I consider it a miracle that she was able to kill a bunch of wasps without freaking out.  She said she didn't freak out because she thought they were flying ants.)

Alyssa and Hna P in their casa

Pizza Hut!


1 comment:

  1. Hello! I came across your blog searching for missionaries in Honduras! My son was just called to serve in San Pedro de Sula Oeste. He will go to MTC in Provo (we already speak Spanish) on April 16th and then to Honduras! Your blog has really helped us to prepare him for the mission field. Keep up the good work! Sister Nunez

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