This week was really cool. We challenged a kid for baptism the first visit with him and we baptized him Saturday. His name is Eduardo. He is the cousin of a kid in the ward who is getting ready to go on his own mission and is just waiting for the papers. That was pretty sweet.
Sundays for missionaries are really stressful and mind boggling at times. This last Sunday we had like 4 investigators to bring to church that said they'd come and we went by all their houses (not too close to each other either) and all but 1 conveniently had to leave out of town at the very time church started. The people here are so nice and loving that they just can't say no if they really don't want to go to church or hear the discussions. We got to the church at about 9:30 or 40. That definitely shouldn't happen and I learned from it. Next week, I am going to assign members and not try and bring all the investigators. They live to far apart for us to get to them all on foot. It looks really bad when we get to the meeting late. We're the missionaries so we gotta be there on time. Even if they're not interested. Also, 9:00 in Honduras time means about 9:30, 9:40ish. No biggie. So tons of the investigators when we came by their house were feeding the baby, eating cereal, brushing their teeth, waking theirselves up, etc. I was definitely not the happiest camper about this.
I write in my journal every day and sometimes I get a bit bored. For example, here is a sample from what I wrote last P day. I composed a poem. It goes like this. A P day. That did not include Tina Fe. Nor Michael Bay. But I did lay and pay for things. P day, p day, you are not gay. Haha, awesome, huh? I really think writing in my journal helps me think through things and why things didn't go well because I write everything down and solutions to the problems start coming to me as I am writing.
I got to go on splits yet AGAIN with E. Ruus this week. He put me through a test I found out. One of the appointments fell through at like 7 and he's just like to me, lets just go home and sleep. No one will know. He said that seriously. But I was like no way we'll contact if the appointments not in. He was just joking but was glad that I wanted to keep working. And that he doesn't have to call my house much and make sure I'm doing what I'm suppose to because he knows he doesn't have to babysit or worry about me. Told me my spanish has gotten a lot better too. ALOT. So that helped me out.
We had a multizone meeting this week in the city. Get this. I went to McDonalds. Surprised right? But I ate 2 sausage mcmuffins, 3 pancakes, a hashbrown, and an orange juice. It was so heavenly and I savored every bite. I was salivating as I was giving my order to the girl picturing what all that food would look like on a tray.
After McDonalds, I saw E. Rivera, E. Petersen, E. Staples, and a lot of other Elders that I knew. It was way fun to see them again and see how they are. Haha, E. Staples told me E. Rivera is crazy and is a pretty boy. Rivera is a really fun and joky person. In our zone, we had to do a little skit thing so we did how the birth of Jesus Christ would've been here in the Americas. We pretended like we were all on a bus in Honduras. We did all the ghetto stuff too. We had the crazy vendors come on and sell stuff, we were all just moving up and down like the bus was driving crazily, and the guy in charge of getting people on the bus just shoved us all on the bus (which happens quite often if you're not firm and stake your turf. The guy will just shove you on the bus and you have to end up paying even if it's not the bus you wanted.) But in bus' in Honduras, people come on sometimes with a Bible and just start preaching. Sometimes you get completely weird freaks that come on and start yelling verses from the Bible and preach and say that the spirit is touching them so strongly and just fall on the floor and twitch and writhe around. I haven't actually seen any of these people yet, but the majority of the Elders have. We had Samuel the lamanite come on the bus and preach the birth of Jesus Christ. My job in the skit was to pretend to be one of the unbelievers and try to kill Samuel with a gun. I was a robber on the bus. It worked out pretty well. I got some pics in there.
We also had a tie exchange too. We all just lined up and traded ties with someone on the other side. I was thinking about bringing my DI ties but I realized that would be cheap. But all my ties have so many memories already. So I just used one I bought in Honduras a while ago.
We are teaching a girl right now. She's 11. We're also teaching her brother who is 8. He isn't really interested too much but she comes to church every week. She has been for like 4 Sundays now. She's funny. At the start of some appointments, she immediately tattles on her brother. She goes, "David didn't read the Book of Mormon. I told him to do it, but he didn't listen." We're like way to go Kati.
I got to play the piano for about an hour this week. It was so helpful to relieve some stress and got me into the Christmas spirit. The true Christmas spirit of Jesus Christ.
You'll never guess what one of my meals this last week was. Grilled cheese, and tomato soup. I finally busted open the can of tomato soup you all sent me. Man, it was delicious. I loved life after eating the meal of meals, that is, grilled cheese and tomato soup. I really love delicious food.
And this last week, one of our investigators said that she cannot go to church because it's cold. I was so sick and tired of excuses at this point in time. I just told her if Jesus Christ was in our position, would you say that? Because we're representatives of Him. I know He wants you to go and you gotta be an example for your kid. He's gonna follow you. She ended up coming with us and that was a big relief. I learned in Preach My Gospel, one of our duties is to be a convincing, powerful tool of helping people keep commitments and DO with the spirit and I felt the spirit as I talked her into going to church.
We had a few interesting contacts this week. One was a 90 year old guy (he was alive and didn't have a walker) who looked like 70 something or in his early 60s. We have an appointment with him this week and he liked what we told him. We also had a guy who just started complaining to us that the pastors here in the churches are a bunch of crap. He told us there is suffering in their congregations and poor people and people who can't afford food. But what are the pastors doing? They are sucking all of their money and have a nice car with a nice house. He told us he doesn't think it's right. We took this as an opportunity to teach the principle of tithing and fast offerings in about 3 or 4 minutes and all the good uses for it helping others. He really thought that was interesting and found it hard to believe that no one got income in our church. He gave us his phone number and told us to come by one day. Another guy actually started talking with us and is like,"Mormons, I need some counsel and want to change my life. Can you help me?" That was cool. But turns out he is a heavy, heavy drinker and was actually kicked out of his own home because of this. We told him he needs to come to church and quit drinking because look where it's got him. Out in the streets. We told him he can do this but not alone and that God will always bless us with our needs or struggles. We just need to do our part by praying, reading the scriptures, and going to church. Then he'll see we really need his help and are humbly following what he wants. It's a miracle that God has blessed me with enough understanding to be able to pick up what people are saying and relate it with Gospel principles. Everyone needs the Gospel, it's just a matter of finding out the needs of the person and relating it to a principle in the Gospel to open the door to a conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.Anyways, enough of me. How about you all? I hope that you all enjoyed my pics I sent. I sent a ton today. It's a miracle that the computer could handle them all. Sending photos through e-mail is pretty hitec usage for computers here in Honduras (even mom and dad will get that joke) Haha just kidding.
Not doing too many different things here for Christmas. I made a list of people I really want to give gifts to who have been special to me and I'm going to go around and deliver them this week. I bought like 10 Bibles in spanish too. Our church came out with hardback Bibles in spanish for only 15 Lempiras. Such a bargain. So thats like 75 cents. That's a really big deal because other churches and other versions of the Bible sell them for like 400 Lempiras starting. So I say it's important to have a BOM and a Bible and I'm gonna try and get one to all my converts.
After the phone call, E. Velis is going to call his family and then a bunch of members invited us over for Tomali's. That's a really big tradition here. Tomalis for Christmas. So I am going to just bring a bag to all those and stuff them in their so I can have a royal feast for about a week. The temple is so sweet. I love the spirit right when you step foot on the grounds. Such a strong spirit.
There was a really neat msg shared at the Christmas program we went to this week. The best gift we can give Jesus is to give of ourselves to others. There are always people who are struggling a bit or who aren't as fortunate as us. What we can do is help ease their burdens and help them be happy by giving of ourselves to them. Love you all!! Merry Christmas. May your year be prosperous. To be honest, Christmas here in Honduras really isn't too much different than normal. Life goes on like normal. Once again. LOVE YOU!! I'm having the time of life here and learning a ton everyday. God lives. Jesus Christ lives. Their hands are in each and every one of our lives if we let them. Recognize all the things they have done for us and continue to do.
Elder Goodwin
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