First email from Honduras

Well... it seems like an eternity has passed by since I wrote my last email. I have been in Honduras for a couple of days now, and time goes by slow when you don’t understand anyone haha.

After about 32 hours of no sleep, we arrived in Honduras, and were met by the Assistants and President Flores at the end of the airport. The whole first day we had some training in the office, and interviews with President Flores. During the interview, he told us our areas that we were going to serve in. I was chosen to serve in the area Comayagua. It’s a small city about 2 hours away from Tegucigalpa and Comayaguela. Haha and my companions name is Elder Cobo from Guatemala. He is a great guy and a good missionary, but he speaks almost no English. We are really good friends, but it is difficult to communicate sometimes.

But seriously, I can’t understand anyone here haha. But that happens to everyone. I can catch a few words here and there, but I have definitely not experienced anything like this before.

The people here are very poor. There are a few paved roads, but that’s about it. The apartment I live in is very small and quite the interesting place, I forgot my camera or else I would have pictures of it! I will try to remember next week so I can put a bunch of pictures on my email.

One big event is that I already had my first baptism! It wasn’t for one of our investigators, but for the Hermanas which are in my district. My district consists of Elder Cobo, me, and 4 Hermanas. All from Guatemala or El Salvador.

I have already gotten straight to work out here. We have appointments from about 2:00 till 8:30 every day. We have 2 investigators with baptismal dates, and I really hope that it continues.

There are no addresses in Comayagua. The only way for me to get mail is through DearElder.com and sending letters to the Mission Office, which you can find through my Madre or the blog I would guess. Because there are no roads, there are no addresses haha. My lifestyle has changed so much, that it is really hard to get used to. I´m sure that for almost all missionaries the hardest time for them is the first few months, because I cannot understand anyone that is speaking pretty much, and it is really frustrating. It’s a lonely feeling being the only one that speaks English around me, but I know that the Lord will only strengthen me for this purpose. One day I will be able to understand the people in Spanish...one day...haha.

The main things I have eaten so far are... sopa de mondongo (cow intestine soup), sopa de Costilla (soup with some other random cow part) and rice and beans. It’s quite the diet change, especially with the heat and the mass amount of walking that I do. We will see how much weight I end up losing.

Despite the mass poverty of the people here, they are really nice. Tons of people invite us in, even if they aren´t really interested in our message, they just like to talk about Jesus and their Salvation haha. Yesterday I also had my first experience at a Spanish ward. Of course I’m the only one within a 100 mile perimeter that knows how to play the piano. So I am now the sacrament meeting pianist, should have seen that one coming. But we had 2 investigators come to church.

Some of my favorite people to visit are Suellen and Milton, they are members and they are very nice and they are close with Elder Cobo and I. Fransisca, she is an investigator with a baptismal date, shows me mercy and says she enjoys when I teach because I am so slow she says that she understands everything. I don´t know if that’s true, but her and her husband Edwin are great investigators and I hope they get baptized soon. Lincoln (and yes, a ton of people have American names around here, it´s pretty funny) is about 20 and his brother is a member. They are fun to hang around with (missionary type hanging around haha) and to teach.

It is almost impossible for the people of Honduras to read the name Tinkham, haha so that is also another funny thing. But finally some of the investigators are starting to remember.

That’s about it for this week. I will have more to share about the work next week! And I will also try to include some culture shocks I keep running into every week as well. Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts, I know I definitely need them here.

Love, Elder Tinkham

Part 2 to the family: Hello to my family back in good ole South Jordan, boy how I miss that place. Everything is going fine for me here in Honduras. I´m just going through the normal stressors of a new missionary. Make sure just to keep me in your prayers so that I will be strengthened, and everything will be alright with me for sure.

I´m going to try and remember to get my camera chord so I can give you some pictures for next week. I have some pictures of my little apartment and its wonderful bathroom, and a few other things. One thing I forgot to add on my email is that on our first and second days in Honduras we had dinner with President and Sister Flores, and she cooked us some really good food, I will never have food that good again for 2 years basically haha. And that first night all 15 or so of us slept on the floor of the home of the assistants haha, and then the next morning we got up and walked back to the mission office, had some more training, and we met our new companions and prepared to leave to our individual areas. Most of the areas are in or nearby the city of Comayaguela right by Tegucigalpa, but my area, along with 3 or 4 others are farther away. There is La Paz and Comayaguela by me, then there is another area farther west called Jesus del Otoro about another hour away. And one random area about 6 hours east of Tegucigalpa haha! My companion and my specific area is called Piedras Bonitas, but there definitely aren´t any pretty rocks haha.

Well I have got to get off, but remember you can write to me through the mission office, and I will get a letter eventually when I go back to the office.

I love you all!

Love,
Elder Tinkham