I have a little more time today.
Ok so there´s a youth in the church who turned 18 last month, her name is Nicole. She lives alone with her mom, who is not a member. Nicole was baptised ~1 year ago. So we visited her last Sunday because she said she had a reference for us. (Sidenote: One of the cool things about honduras is that everybody´s got a front gate and a patio. Just about everyone. So visiting people outside is not a problem and usually it´s cooler outside than inside) So we went there to her house and her friend turned out to not be super interested in the church, which was a bummer. BUT we got the opportunity to talk a little bit to her mom.
We were able to get the full story out of her mom... So basically what had happened was about 2 years ago her son was investigating the church. He was apparently super cool. Showed up to church on his own for the first time... woke up early to read the scriptures. Shared the gospel with his family and friends. Golden investigator. So he, his mom, and his best friend all had baptism dates. What´s kinda interesting though, is that Nicole at this point wanted nothing to do with the church.
But three days before his baptism he had an asthma attack while playing soccer and died. Very sad. So his mom didn´t get baptised, but his friend did. His mom reacted super bad to his death. She didn´t want anything to do with the church after that. Her daughter Nicole looked for the church and began to recieve the missionaries. She was baptized about a year after her brother died.
Fastforward to a week ago. She shares all of this with us. I decided to borrow her phone and looked up a video on Youtube. Thank goodness for the internet. I know... missionaries aren´t supposed to use technology, but I use a computer everyday so...
But anyways I looked up a video called ´el perdón aligeró mi carga´ in english it´s something like ´forgiveness lightened my burden´ it´s about a bald man who got in a car accident with a drunk driver and lost lots of family members in the accident. Basically it talks about how because he forgave the guy, he didn´t feel quite as sad. He found peace because of the gospel. So that was a little bit of disobedience on my part (oops). But it really hit the spot.
After the video ended, she began to cry and went inside. We gave it a couple minutes. We weren´t really sure what to do. In the end I asked Nicole if she could go inside and ask her mom if she´d like a blessing. She came out and we offered a blessing. In it I felt like I should say that she would be able to find the same kind of peace in her life that Nicole had found. I also told her that her son didn´t want her to be unhappy. That he had set an example for her. I finished the blessing. We invited her to church (Nicole is gonna get he yw award tomorrow). She said she would attend. So that was a pretty cool lesson.
There´s 2 more but I thought that was a highlight reel lesson, so I thought I´d share it instead of the other ones. That´s all you get for this week, maybe if nothing happens next week I´ll share one of these ones.
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Two weeks in a row I´ve had something to do directly after writing something super small. This weeks a little bit better.
Honduras is awesome.
I´ve had some really good wards, I think maybe my favorite was Montecristo though. Maybe just my favorite area in general up to this point.
I am ready for summer to end. It´s kind of a neverending summer here though. Remember that rainjacket I came with? I cannot use it anymore. I just get too hot and sweaty. My new rain strategy I´ve been using recently is that I have a plastic garbage bag with me always. When it begins to rain I just throw everything in there and just get wet. I used to get really bugged when I got wet. I thought "oh people won´t let us in if we´re all wet" but now I´m starting to believe that people feel kind bad for us so they let us in. The only thing is now I look like a little bit of a homeless guy carrying around my garbage bag.
My routine is kinda boring. I wake up and then I run a little bit or play soccer with the other missionaries I live with. Then I take a shower and get ready to go to the office. Then I drive to the office and eat a bagel or cereal or oatmeal or whatever else I bought. Then I do things in the office or in the car (depends on the day) I eat lunch in some restaurant nearby and then we go home and visit some people in the area. Then we eat dinner and go home and sleep. I watch some church movies.
You watched October sky? That´s a good movie. And now, a brief october sky storyline... Old man who always plays an angry general: "Homer you don´t wanna dig coal?" jake gyllenhal: "No" Old man who always plays an angry general: "But you live in COALwood" Driveby shooter: "I hate rockets!" Andddd... Scene.
Another missionary took my camara charger home to El Salvador so I now basically have no camara. The good thing is one of my old friends (Elder Mera) gave me his camara as he was going home (to Ecuador). So now I have a camara.
I´m sure it´s always cool to see people who speak spanish in the US. I think it´s cool seeing Hondurans who can speak really good english. Lots of them speak "english" but it doesn´t really extend too much farther than "how are you."
I love you guys!!!
-Elder Stoddard
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