The Field is White: Week 56 -- Hard Work and Rain!

HOLA!

1. How has this first full week in your area been? What do you think of your area?

It's been hard, LOL, I'm not going to lie. We have the lowest stats that I have ever had in my mission... and it's not just me. The other elders, too. So yeah, it's been hard but good because I love my companion and when things fall through we just walk to the next cita and talk so I feel like there is a lot less stress about things falling through. But its very closed here and more of A city than any of my other areas. So it's been really hard to contact people because they are all inside. But we have been exploring areas that are farther away from the centro and it's more like Copan or La Victoria out there so I feel more comfortable there, but we will see. We honestly don't have very many people right now to teach, or that are progressing and the members aren't going out with us... so there's lots of work to be done and lots of menos activos (less active members) to visit. The area is really pretty but it's hard because no one is in the streets like I'm used to so I have to rethink all of my tactics and how to do things. The tan lines on my feet have gotten even worse being here in Puerto, hahahahaha, and they are a trophy for me now. I love the tan lines because they show my hard work The people here are nice but there is no one like Marcia or her family. Members here feed us every day except Sunday and Monday and they do it for FREE, too, which is a huge blessing!

2. Did you find any new investigators this week?

Yeah, we did! We have actually found a few new people. We even taught a Testigo de Jehovah (Jehovah's Witness) this past week which was legit! But yeah, we passed a family and I thought that we should go back and talk to them. It turns out that the missionaries visited them 2 years ago and they went to church and everything but the missionaries got changed and then they stopped coming... so maybe there is something there. They are still really new so I don't know what to say about them yet.

3. Can you give me the names of the people you're working with so we can pray for them?

D... she wants to get baptized but she has to get married first and there are some complications with that. Her son D has a baptism date for the 8th of November but he hasn't been to church for the last two weeks so we will see.

4. What did you do for P-Day this week?

We were going to go to the beach as a zone but they didn't end up doing that so we went as the missionaries from our ward. There are 6 of us here in our ward and the beach was really, really dirty. But we played football Americano and frisbee and talked and went to Pizza Hut afterward and now we are writing! Woohoo! It was actually really, really fun. The missionaries in this ward are awesome and we all get along really well.

5. What miracles and tender mercies have you seen this week? Answers to your prayers?

We went to an hermanas house and she was cutting up newspapers and there were Sudoku puzzles! And she gave them to me, lol, and so this week I have been doing them in my free time, haha, and there's another Christmas idea, if you want to send me a Sudoku book. And also that it has been rainy in the mornings but not during the day no so that's been a HUGE blessing because I hate the rain and it makes it even harder to contact people in the street.

6. How has someone else blessed your life this week?

Okay, so this week my companion and I didn't feel well...our stomachs hurt a whole lot, probably from something we ate. But there is a thing here called impacho... I don't know what that would be in English but they claim it's your food sticking to your stomach and you have to massage it off and then take laxatives... so having tried everything else we gave into the Honduran ways and an hermana came over to massage our stomachs (or sobar as they say here)... and we took the drink she made us and it sure did clean our systems out! The other tender mercy is that we didn't have to use the bathroom while we were out in the street. But it actually helped a whole lot and now we feel a lot better, lol. But she was very sweet and just wanted to help us feel better.

7. How have you served someone else this week? How have you served your companion this week?

I try to make her bed and do the dishes when there are any, but she's really clean and tidy. We talk a lot, too.

8. What was the best thing that happened this week?

Getting to go to the beach and hang out with the missionaries in our ward. They are just really fun to be with.

9. What was the funniest/funnest thing that happened this week?

We while we were talking to the Testigo de Jehova I told him that I was from Venezuela and he totally believed me, hahaha! It was super funny but then I cracked and laughed and told him I was from the States. Hna Archila says that I have an accent from Venezuela. I have no idea if that's true or not, but the guy totally believed me!

10. What did you do for your district meeting and zone meeting this week?

We had a zone meeting and my District Leader and the Zone Leaders talked... about unity in companionship, the Book of Mormon and about having honest days (I think that that may be a problem in our mission but I don't know).

11. What was the spiritual highlight of your week?

I think just feeling promptings to talk with certain people that we passed by this week and when we followed those promptings every one of them lead to a return appointment which was really cool for me to see that there are people here... But maybe we are just here to plant the seeds but you never know! It was really neat for both of us.

12. What did you learn from your personal study this week?

This week was rough for personal studies because I was so nervous about what we woul do for companion study and so it took some of my personal time out and it was cooler in the house and so I was really sleepy (haha) so I don't have any spiritual highlights and I also had to prepare my talk which took up another personal study.

13. How has the weather been this week?

It rains a lot here but thankfully it's during the night. So sometimes during the day it can be really really hot because it's so humid but we get a good breeze from the coast so it's nice after like 4 pm-ish. But it's going to get more and more rainy which really scares me because I hate the rain.

14. Do you know that I love you and I miss you?

Always!

15. What was the best thing and the worst thing you ate this week?

I did actually try new things this week! I ate montucas which are like sweet tamales with meat inside. They taste kind of like sweet corn or sweet potatoes. There's a picture of them this week. We ate fish soup at a member's house and I did not like it... there's just something about whole fish in my soup... I also ate helote which is a grilled corn on the cob and they put salt, butter and lime juice on it... it wasn't terrible.

16. What was the most beautiful thing you saw this week?

The beach! And pretty sunsets this week that reminded me of home.

17. What have you heard from President Dester lately?

He always writes us a weekly email and this week it was on obedience... I think that as a mission we aren't very obedient which is really sad. But usually he sends uplifting stuff to help motivate us.

18. Tell me about the other missionaries in your district.

Elder J is the District leaderL and he's really great. He is about to finish... he goes home in January. He used to be a totally different person and he completely changed his life around which is just cool. He's from El Salvador.

Elder M speaks English but is from the Dominican Republic. He's really tall for a Latin. He's a newbie...well, he has like 4 months.

Elder H is in training still and barely speaks Spanish. He's from Utah and he speaks to me a lot in English. He's having some struggles. I know what that's like.

Elder O is from Guatemala and he works really, really hard.

There are 2 other hermanas but I don't really know them yet. THese four elders are the ones in our ward that we did P-day activities with today.

19. You said you wanted to make good things happen there -- what's your plan to do that?

I have no idea... I was going to just contact the crap out of this place but that plan is kind of shot down... there are lots of unexplored areas though, because previous hermanas didn't explore the outer areas that aren't the centro because some hermanas like the city but I really don't like it -- I prefer the outer areas! So we have been heading out to the outer areas to contact and I would like to get to know it more out there to see if there are peopel who will receive us.

20. How was church yesterday? Was it nice to be in an air conditioned building again?

YES! But it gets really cold! But I was able to straighten my hair for church and I haven't done that in a LOOOONG time, lol. Actually, I had to give a talk! It was awful...actually, it wasn't but I don't like giving talks. I spoke on the obra misional...big suprise. I talked about how it is really just working with people that we love and helping them to get to the celestial kingdom with us. It isn't about baptisms, really it's about their salvation. I figure that that is what I have learned in the mission so I should share that with them but I don't know how it really went over. I kind of recylced parts of it from other talks I have given and I have found that I talk A LOT so writing talks for me now is not that hard!

21. Daddy mentioned that your area has the "banana port" for Honduras. I didn't realize bananas were a big export crop there...is that right?

There are a ton of bananas all over Honduras but i dont really know if here is the banana port...

22. Is it still really rainy? Is it still hot? What kind of weather do you think you'll have in your area over the winter?

Yeah, I think that it is going to be just rain and more rain like Santa Rosa but without the cold. But aopparently it floods here, too, so I really hope the umbrella gets here soon or I will just have to buy a new one here for the meantime.

I got letters this from Grace Clark, Jan Speroni, and Mom and a story from Nicholas, I think. Thank you everyone for writing to me!

You could also send me a nail polish to strengthen my nails if you want so they stay nice, and also dried ravioli for Christmas if you really wanted to. Yes, I can get bug spray through the ruta but apparently we're going to have to start paying for it.

We can do a 5K together when I get home. But I'm really, really, really out of shape!

Love you!

Hermana Gisseman

Some of the food I ate this week