Third times the charm

Monday June 23, 2014

Hola family and friends! 

Today is a little different because I am writing from an internet cafe that is below the city mall in the heart of San Pedro Sula! I´ll make this quick since we can´t be here for very much longer when it starts getting late. Today me and hermana S headed back to SPS for some more doctor visits. Nursing has been a big part of these last few weeks. Lots of missionaries with foot, leg, knee and back problems. Today when we showed up to the doctor there were three more missionary companionships waiting in the office that I had sent. Party at the doctor´s office! I really have no complaints. Putting on my nursing shoes is refreshing. 

The rainy season is back!

This week has been great. We are definitely headed into the rainy season here! It rains most afternoons and the streets fill up with water. It´s fun though, we are getting good use out of our umbrellas. The lightning here is nuts! Sometimes it is a little scary to have the lighting strike so close with a huge metal umbrella, but oh well... Lots of rain mean lots of power outages and being only with candlelight.

Studying by candlelight!

This week it´s gone out consistently, and one night it went out even until the next afternoon. We had church without power!! The members here sure are troops :) But it made for a good experience and the spirit was just as strong as ever. Our investigators have been progressing well and we are hoping to have 4 baptisms within the next 2 weeks (lots of prayers would be great for I, M, J and JE). We had a super good lesson with an investigator names JG. We watched the Restoration with him and the spirit was super strong. He said afterwards (even with a few tears in his eyes) that he knew now more than ever that Jose Smith is a prophet of God. We are so lucky to have the knowledge that we do!! 

This week I started studying each of the individual principles of the lessons again in more detail and spent a while just on God is Our Loving Heavenly Father. That one single point alone is a huge blessing that we understand more than most. Sometimes with a culture that is SUPER christian I forget that a belief in God doesn´t mean they understand who He is and that He is literally our father. We started asking our investigators that simple question (how do you imagine God is like?) and we have had some incredible lessons just specifically on who God is and our divine nature as His children. We would get lots of varying answers, but mostly people were a little stumped and would say "wow.. I´ve never really thought of that before." Most think He is a Great Spirit just like it says in Alma 18.

2 funny stories - Yesterday we were teaching with a member from the ward when we heard a herd of horses running behind us. When we turned around there were like 6 running straight for us! We all paniked and went running in all directions and all B kept saying was "que hacemos, que hacemos??!" (what do we do, what do we do??!) In the end they turned a corner at the last minute and we escaped certain death... haha we got a good laugh out of it. Especially since it was the native catratcha that was freaking out more than the rest of us!

We went back to conquer the muddy river again because the short cut was just tooooo great to pass up. We almost got past it without problems (what are the chances of something bad happening twice??) but just as I reached a rock with my foot my skirt ripped up the whole back....... Hermana O was DYING laughing. Luckily I was able to cover it up well enough to head back to the house to change and we were headed back for lunch anyway. But I was not going to let this little muddy river get the best of us!! So we went back for a third time (i know we are crazy) and we found a giant log and muscled it to make a path and vuala!!!

We passed with no problems and know we have a super great short cut to cut out walking time in between teaching appointments (just pat myself on the back.... haha) Like they always say... Third times the charm!!

Until Next Week,

Hermana Bennett

Just call me part-time office secretary

Hola familia and friends! 

Grateful for another week here in the mission. This week has been pretty good. Lots of unique opportunities!

On Wednesday I got a call from Hermana Klein saying that one of the sister missionaries (that lives in the house next to mine) needed to go to the Doctor in San Pedro Sula for her knee and that it would be best if I came with her because I was familiar with the city (just call me catratcha... haha). We were planning on going friday, but something just didn´t sit right. So when the opportunity opened up to go the same day we took it. Our companions stayed behind in a division and we headed off! When we arrived to the doctor´s office, there was a young man that was headed out. He left and walked down the street, but about 2 mintues later he came back and said, "uh... can I talk to you guys for just a quick second?" So we went to talk to him and he told us that a while back he was taught by some missionaries once, was given a pamphlet and a book of mormon, but then got in a motorcycle accident and had to move to San Pedro Sula suddenly. But he said that he loved everything about our church, that he read the pamphlet and knew it was true. He said that he had been trying to get a hold of the missionaries so that he could continue learning and so when he saw us he was super excited! We were able to get his information (and he literally wrote everything down - name, number, email, address, house color, where it was situated, etc). He told us that he just felt good about the church and loved the organization. We were able to give him another book of mormon since he had left it when he moved. It was such a cool experience! He told us that it was the very last appointment with that doctor, too. So God put us there right when he needed us! It was no wonder we didn´t feel right about going friday!

The doctor ended up wanting to see Hermana S the next day as well which meant that we would need to stay in San Pedro Sula for the night which meant another night at President´s house! I seriously feel so spoiled... We went out to lunch with Hermana Klein and then went grocery shopping where there were tons of american products. it was nuts. Me and Hermana S almost died... It was also funny because at President´s house I grabbed the dishwasher soap and was smelling it and said, "Hermana S look!" Then we started laughing.... when in our lives were we ever fascinated with dishwasher soap?? That night we had to get the exercise bike out of the storage unit for her to do exercises for her knee and then played a game of giant tetris to try and put all the furniture back so it fit perfectly. When we were finished there was even lots of room left over! There is some sense of accomplishment in organization... haha. The rest of the night was spent helping hermana klein with burning some cds for a women´s conference and just talking and talking with president klein. It was a great night. The next day (after a hot shower.... what??) our appointment wasn´t until 1 and so they put us to work in the office. It was fun doing some of the administrative stuff. The other elders were a little weirded out to have sisters there for half a day.... haha. We also celebrated President Klein´s birthday with cake and ice cream. Me and hermana S decided it felt like a weekend vacation, and then it was back to work! President drove us back to Mezapa with the exercise bike in the back of his car. Being the nurse definitely has it´s blessings. I´m super grateful for my callling!

Things are still going well with our investigators. Some bumps in the road, but nothing that we haven´t seen before and nothing that can´t be overcome! The other day we were talking to J about his baptism date and then he said the prayer at the end and said, "Dear God, I just want to ask you a little thing (una cosita).... Can I get baptized on the 6th of june?" It had to be one of the sweetest things I have ever heard... :) Everyone here is hyped up about the world cup. We will be walking down the street and off in the distance we always hear "Gooooooaaaaaallllllllll!!!" Yesterday Honduras played and the streets were deserted.... haha there was also a torrential downpour so it´s a miracle that the power didn´t out!

There´s lots and lots of things that I could write about but I feel like this is already a novel. I hope that you all have a great week and I´ll try to be more organized with my thoughts!!! haha Love you all!!

Until Next Week,

Hermana Bennett

Stuck in the Mud!

Pday from May at the Beach with President and Sister Klein and her District in Mezapa 

Hola friends and family! 

This week was a pretty good one! Good to hear that Matthew got a good Honduran surprise for his birthday :) So proud.... haha sounds like a new tradition in the making? Though in the picture he looked far too clean.... there`s always next year. Who`s birthday is next? Abby?? mwahahaha :)  

**Note from Angilyn's mom - Honduran's have a tradition of cracking an egg over the birthday person's head and pouring flour over the top!  I guess we were too nice and didn't get Matt messy enough!!!  And we let Scott off the hook this time. . . :)  We did this per request of Hermana Bennett for her brother!

Looking back on this week I`d have to say it was pretty normal when it comes to missionary life. Up at 6:30, exercise, shower, study, out walking and talking and teaching (and if you are hermana Olivas giving all the animals a fright), buying corn tortillas from the lady on the corner, lunch, language study, and out again teaching and singing hymns, yelling bueeeennnnnas, getting blown kisses and hearing "Boootiful guuurl!", letting those tan lines get more and more defined, feeling the spirit, drinking pepsi from investigators (or if you´re from honduras se dice "pexi"), almost getting bitten by a dog here or there (that really does happen to missionaries...), dodging cows and pigs, reading lots of scriptures, hearing "dios les bendiga" (God bless you) and "que les vaya bien" (do well), saying lots of prayers, back to the house at 8:00-8:30 (us sisters have to be in early because of the country we are in...), planning session, wash some clothes in the pila, million calls from dying missionaries, maybe write in the diary here or there, lights out at 10:30 aaannnnnddddd...... alarm goes off at 6:30 and it all begins again! I have to say I`ve gotten quite used to this missionary life and it sure is a life like no other. But I love it! 

Still working with M and everything is going great with him. As well as J, the son of G (the less active family we`ve been working with) - she has to work 4 sundays yes and 4 sundays no so this past month J has been coming to church by himself and he seems to really enjoy it! When we leave him folletos (literature, pamphlets) he fills in all the questions in the back and he is super smart. He thought he had to wait to be 12 to be baptized but we happily informed him that he didn`t have to wait :) we also have been working with a joven (young) named J. Just a few months back he had been receiving lessons from the Jehovah`s Witnesses, but after reading and praying about the Book of Mormon he told us that he knows that this is the truth.

The other night my companion Hermana Rioja from la paz called me with a medical question and then informed me that this Saturday C was getting baptized!! Do you remember the story I told about a girl that had a dream that 2 people were going to come by and teach her the truth and that she would go to church with them? Yes, her!! I was sooooooo happy :) That moment when we first contacted her was seriously one of the most spiritual I have had on my mission, an it really does make everything here worth it when you get to see someone accept the truth and change their lives. I grew to love her very much and it was the best feeling to hear that she had been baptized :) 

Yesterday in the morning we were going around to pass by for our investigators to come to church and we decide to take a short cut that we had previously taken in order to cut back on time..... the night before it had poured rain and so the little stream we had crossed was now a much wider river of muck and yucky water. But getting my creative gears going I utilized my umbrella to reach a stick that I pulled closer as a hand grip and found a log that I could reach to put my foot on. Patting myself on the back for my creativity I stepped onto the log aannnd, it sunk.... along with my foot up to mid-calf and to my dismay I lost balance and though my companion valiently tried to save me it was to no avail. I fell flat on my tousch up to my waist in MUCK. I sat there for a good minute in complete shock, completely covered in yucky goop (it was slightly a dejavu moment of Denmark when I tried to cross the monkey bars and feel in the river). NOooooo! After searching through the mud to recover my shoes we hurried to the nearest house and borrowed water from their pila to wash off as best as possible and then booked it home to be able to change and get to church on time. I had several options....A: cry B: laugh C: get upset or frustrated D: come up with a clever gospel analogy to use in the sacrament talk that I had been assigned. Initially I debated on B, had a slight moment with A, and then finally decided to choose option D :) haha if life throws you lemons, compare it to the gospel!!!

Sure do love you all! I hope you have a great week and are enjoying the first glimpses of summer :) Welcome to my world.

Until next week!
Hermana Bennett

Things are looking up!

Monday June 2, 2014
Hello to my wonderful friends and familia. 

I hope that this email finds you well. I feel like I just wrote you yesterday (maybe because it was just a few days ago... haha) I feel like things are started to pick up a little bit more here in Mezapa, though it might just be that my outlook is changing! Me and Hermana Olivas have really focused our efforts on being super obedient and then letting the Lord guide. In the end, it´s the Spirit that is doing the teaching which makes it vitally important to have it as a companion. More obedience = more spirit! I´ve been noticing a lot in the scriptures that it says to the degree of our obedience, or to the portion that we keep the commandments we will prosper with that same portion. So if we want a higher degree of the Spirit we need to have a higher degree of obedience. Not that we are disobedient missionaries, but there are always the little itty bitty things that we can do better. I´ve seen a big difference even in the past few days. 

We continue to work with M and he is progressing super well! He told us that he prayed to know if it was true and that the spirit told him "Go with my people..." How cool is that? Then in church on Sunday he was asked to say the prayer and while he was praying he thanked God for being able to find the church and that he could see now that it teaches the truth. I feel blessed to be able to see these miracles. In church on Sunday we finally had a good group of investigators come! It felt so wonderful after several weeks of drought... haha It really is so important for them to be able to come to church and feel the different Spirit that is there. To see the order and the unity that the church has. This week the branch is going on a temple trip. They are leaving at 2 in the morning to get to Tegucigalpa around 6 or 7, stay there all day and then return in the night. How blessed are we to have so many temples within a stones throw from our homes? I hope that I don´t ever take it for granted again! 

picture courtesy of  Federico Bozo

This week I discovered a new fruit called mamones.... Soooo good. They look like little limes, but when you break them open there is a little gooey pink ball that you suck on and then spit out the seed when you´re done. It seems like every other day I am discovering new fruit! It´s definitely something that I will miss. The people here have lots of different fruit trees in their yards. Anything from mangos, lemons, oranges (that are both green here), mangos, coconuts, mamones, pink pears, guava, guanabana, cacao, pineapples, papaya (which is slowly growing on me), bananas of all different shapes sizes and flavors, etc. There is also palmfruit which you don´t eat, but they send it to make oil and lots of other things and the seed is colorful and pretty. My companion is super observant and is always pointing out new flowers and strange exotic birds or other animals. This place truly is a garden! 

Sure love you all and I hope that you are doing well. I would love to here some updates on how you all are doing - you are in my thoughts and prayers always. Shout out to the ward, it´s crazy how many missionaries are serving! It´s a blessing to get to be a part of it. Another shout out to my "big" little brother for his birthday tomorrow. I invite someone to please crack an egg on his head for me.... thanks!!! (and then send me a picture.... haha)

Until next week!

Hermana Bennett

Transfer number 7

Wednesday May 28,2014

Hola to my family and friends! 

Saying goodbye to another transfer and on to the next. I have been here in the mission for more transfers than I have left... That´s kind of a weird thought. Me and Hermana Olivas are staying together again so not much change!! This week was a great one. 

My birthday was on Tuesday and my district suprised me with a lunch at a members house! They said that we had district meeting on Tuesday and we were there waiting for all the other sisters to arrive (they´re always late.... haha) so it wasn´t abnormal for us to be waiting. Then Hermano G showed up and said that there was an emergency in his house and that he needed us to come help. He sent us in a mototaxi and took the elders in his truck to get another "hermano" for help. That´s when I got a little suspicious! When we got to the house there was a super loud birthday song playing in Spanish and they were all hiding behind the door to surprise me! They had made a special "american" lunch of meat, mashed potatoes and veggies :) It made me feel like I was with family :)

Here they like to pull pranks of the birthday person, and I was no different.  They gave me a box that had a tarantula in it, shoved my face in the cake after blowing out the candles, and cracked two eggs and poured flour over my head....haha it wouldn't be a Hondurean birthday without it!

I was super grateful for my district and the Bautista family for remembering my birthday. Apparently they´d been planning it for weeks! It´s a hard day to be away from family, but I felt right at home with them.

This week we had multizone conferences which meant that me and my companion got to travel a lot to the other parts of the mission to do a presentation on health. That´s one thing I like about my calling is that I get to meet all the missionaries in the mission!

This time the presentation was great because I had my companion do a part of it. She has been helping me a lot with the nursing responsibilities and it has really helped the unity in our companionship. Instead of having her sit off to the side she jumps right in to help and even takes some calls for me! I really do love being the nurse. It´s an extra responsibility, but I feel good getting to help the other missionaries serve the Lord the best that they can.

Wednesday was our own Zone Conference and then on Friday we traveled to La Ceiba (2 1/2 hours in a bus). I feel like I´m becoming pro at this whole public transport thing! Maybe I´ll just use the bus system when I get home.... haha It was funny, at the bus terminal on the way back there were a bunch of gringos there that had been backpacking in the mountains by the ocean. I started talking to one of them and found out that she was from Conneticut. It was SO HARD talking to her in English... Everyother word I said was in Spanish and I kept having to correct myself.... haha I prefer to speak in Spanish now, even with the other American missionaries. It´s just hard to switch back and forth. 

Traveling meant not being able to work full time in the area, but we were still able to find some great people to teach! One day we were walking to contact a reference when we saw a man on his front porch. We started talking to him and he immediately let us in and was super friendly. We found out that he had just moved here a week ago to live with his daughter, but that a year ago he had visited a couple of time with missionaries and liked what they had to say, though had never been able to go to church because of his work. We gave him a book of mormon and invited him to church on Sunday. On Saturday we were walking down another street and here he comes on a bike saying, "hermanas, I´m headed to church right now!!" He thought that it was a day early... haha but it is always a struggle to get people to come to church and to see him so excited to go filled us with so much joy! The next visit we as we were walking towards his house we saw him sitting on his porch with his reading glasses reading the book of mormon :) We´ve been praying to find someone that has been prepared and that would be excited and interested in our message! It´s a testimony that the Lord really prepares his children, we just so happen to be the missionaries here when he was ready to accept it. He has a baptismal date for 28th of June so lots of prayers his way would be great!! 

Mom had some questions about how people react to our message here. In Mezapa a lot of people are super religous, the main religion being Evangelical (with lots of different sects). As I was watching the Restoration the other day with all the pastors and all the different churches meeting outside and all the religious talk and excitement it reminded me so much of how it is here in Mezapa! Everyone saying "here is the truth" "no, here is the truth!!" I don´t think I could count how many different churches their are here, practically one on every corner! On Monday nights there are a lot of "cultos" or church meetings that they hold outside their houses in their yards. Everyone is willing to listen and talk about Christ, but to accept a doctrine that isn´t there own is difficult, especially when they have already been baptized in their churches. They say that there is only one baptism (like ephesians 4) and that it is playing with God to be baptized in another church. To answer this doubt a lot of times we show them Acts 18, where Paul found a group of people that had been baptized but never recieved the Holy Ghost, then were baptized again and he placed his hands on their heads to give them the spirit. A lot of times as well they feel that they need to ask permission from their Pastors to come to church, even when they feel the spirit or feel like it is true. It also helps to explain the Apostasy and the Authority, which is a completely new concept for the majority of people. Many feel that the authority never left the earth, and that the authority is given by God to those who have faith and have accepted him as their Savior. This helps, but really in the end, what they need to do is read the Book of Mormon and pray to ask God and recieve and answer and confirmation by the spirit for themselves. We could answer their questions and doubts all day long but if they never ask, they will never be able to come to know for themselves. I have a huge testimony in the power of the Spirit and the Book of Mormon!! Without it, our message seems like just another really great message about Christ.

Sorry for the Novel.... haha I hope that you all have a really great week! I´ll talk to you all again on Monday!

Hermana Bennett

Transfer Week

Monday May 26, 2014

Won´t find out until tonight if I have transfers or not. I would love to be here another transfer and to be with Hermana Olivas again. We really get along well. 

My birthday was nice :) My district suprised me with a lunch at a members house. They had asked me a couple of weeks ago what my favorite meal at home was and I had said meat, mashed potatoes and veggies without even thinking and that´s what they made. Here they pull pranks on the birthday person and it was full of boxes with tarantulas, shoving my face in the cake (okay just a little) and then cracking eggs and pouring flour on my head. It sure was a joy. 

My companion had a super strong pain in her legs so we couldn´t go out and work until the nighttime. God gave me a little nap for my birthday... haha got the Birthday package on Wednesday so it was right on time and it was perfect!!!! thanks a bunch. We´ve been doing the pilates workout and I really like it, it´s fun. And it promises to shrink my fat zones in 3 weeks.... I´ll take it :)

I´ll write more about my week and everything on Wednesday!

Love, Hermana Bennett

Happy Birthday to.... Me!!

My dearest family and friends. 

Why hello there.... I sure hope that you are all doing well. Tomorrow (May 20th) is perhaps one of the best days of the year. And why is that? Because I was born, that`s why!!! haha But seriously it really makes me sit back and think. How incredible of an opportunity we have to have been born on this earth, to recieve a body and get to grow and have experiences that continue to stretch us and shape us into the people that God needs us to be. It`s not always easy, in fact most of the time it`s pretty hard. But what an incredible blessing we have to have the fullness of the gospel. To know that this life has a purpose, that we aren`t just here to pass time but that we each have a specific plan that a loving Heavenly Father has prepared for us. We aren`t always going to be perfect, but that`s why He sent Jesus Christ, to make up for where we fall short. I`ve been learning more and more just exactly what Jesus Christ did for us and the more I learn, the more in awe I am. I don`t think we will ever fully understand just exactly the magnitud of what He did for us, but the fact is that He did! And because of that one day, if we do our best, we can live with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and our families for FOREVER! I´m sure you`ve all seen this, but since I`m here disconnected from everything I just barely saw it last week... haha but seriously this video is incredible. I want every single one of my investigators to watch it and feel the spirit and the peace and the hope it brings!

http://easter.mormon.org/

This week was pretty good. We`re hanging in there! The work has been a little slow and a little rough this transfer, but I know that as long as I do my best, I can help the Lord fulfill His purposes here. We`ve had a lot of citas fall through and a lot of people haven`t been recieving us. One day we walked around for a good 2 hours before we had our first lesson (wait aren`t I supposed to be in central america??). People hiding from us, or saying they were busy, or not wanting to listen. But these days always lead to finding new people to teach which I love. We contacted a family that was outside washing dishes that are SUPER evangelical, but they let us in and listened to our message. I felt the Spirit strong with them and they were receptive. We prayed with them and left them with a folleto (brochure) of the restoration. The next time we came we just taught the dad, but he told us that he was so grateful that we had come to teach him and that he knew that our message was true. He said that his wife had been sick, but after we prayed with them and left, she no longer had the pain and the sickness that she had been struggling with was gone. He told us that he wanted us to always come visit them and share our message with them because he knows it`s true. We invited him to be baptized and he said that he had already been baptized in the church that they were attending, but that just means that he doesn`t understand quite yet about the priesthood, so we won`t give up just yet :) I felt the spirit super strong, that Heavenly Father has something prepared for this family. 

This week we had a nice break from the blazing heat with rain. We went to the beach again today for p-day but with president Klein. After a while it started raining super hard! But I loved it and soaked it all up. Because the first half of the week was SO HOT: and the power was out so we didn`t have our fans and let`s just say I didn`t sleep. But mom, thank you for your prayers that I could handle the heat, because they were answered with rain and a cool breeze!! I even wore a sweater for the past 2 days.... haha that`s unheard of.... (it was 80 degrees and I was cold!) 

I sure love you all, and I hope that this week is great for you all. Thank you for you prayers and your support.

Next week is transfer week... again??! Crazy how fast time is flying by. I´ll let you all know if I`ll be staying or going, but I think I`ll be staying here... but we shall see. Adios!! Que les vaya bien!!

Hermana Bennett