What Shall I do Next?‏

Hello all of you beautiful family and friends out there! I am a little bit flustered today because its very late in the afternoon today and I walked for about 2 hours and 4 miles to find a computer to use today! but all is well and I'm trying to write this as fast as possible.

This week we didn't have a whole lot of chance to work. Wednesday was Zone Conference (see picture below), and Saturday and Sunday General Conference. But those meetings were nothing but amazing!

We are starting to run out of investigators now that Noè doesn't need us at all anymore haha. He practically is one of the best members in the ward by now. Right now our strongest investigators are Josè and Maria, the really poor couple that live together that we have been teaching for a long time. They have desires to get baptized and everything but they are not married, and it is VERY difficult to obtain all of their papers because Josè literally has no identity pretty much, he has had quite the crazy life let me tell you. But all I can say is we are doing everything we can for him and hoping for a miracle so that we can get them baptized this month, and married of course. But the great thing is that the Lord has blessed Josè with work, so they are a lot more happy and receptive I think now. Before, I think they might have just been using this as an excuse to ask the other members for work, but now, they are becoming truly converted.

Well, Edwin and Fransisca are moving. Seriously like 5 days too early for us to get the proper interviews done with him and get him baptized. But the good thing is that they are still going to be living in the mission, and so we can refer them to the other missionaries in the area. It really sucks for us because all they have to do is interview him and baptize him, and we did all the teaching! Haha but I know its not about numbers and we are really happy for his decisions and changes, but its just a bit bittersweet you know? We are going to teach our final lesson with him on Wednesday and it will be very sad.

On Wednesday we had Zone Conference, and it was great. I understood A whole lot more this time, so it was a lot better for me to learn. President Flores taught us about being Born Again, and what it really means, from Moroni 8:25-26 I think it is. Man if you think explaining and understanding deep deep doctrine like that is confusing, try it in another language! I was blown out of my mind haha! But i still enjoyed it very much.

Let me just tell you all, I have no idea what I'm going to say about General Conference, because it was just plain amazing! I watched every second of the 10 hours or so that was available, and I even got to watch it in English! The stake presidency set up a gringo room for us and it was really a great blessing. Once again I was blown away by the intensity of Jeffrey R. Holland and his testimony of the Book of Mormon, and it helped me realize to NEVER be timid about sharing my testimony of the Book of Mormon, and I am really applying that. I also loved the talk of M. Russell Ballard in Priesthood Session about Father-son relationships (I love you Dad!). And countless more, President Monson and his call to service, President Eyring and his talk on priesthood blessings, Uchtdorf! Elder Hales and his testimony that God lives, Elder Bednar, geez all of it! I took about 7 pages of notes and I am going to study them for months. I love so much the guidance of a living prophet today, and here in Honduras I am staring to realize in my life all of the blessings that I truly have that I never realized before. Truthfully, my mission is hard. Really hard. It is extremely different here, and I know that without the Lords help I would never be able to do this, but here I am, and the work is progressing!

In between the sessions of Saturday and Sunday, 6 missionaries in our zone from the nearby sitting stayed in our house for the night, and since we only have 2 beds...I slept on the hardwood tile floor with a towel and my pillow! Haha wow what an experience that was, and let me tell you how much I am being humbled here. But we did have a fun time playing wall ball before going to bed (I creamed a lot of them).

Thank you everyone for all of your letters and love that I received from you this last week and for all of your prayers and thoughts. I am so grateful to be out here in Honduras serving a mission for the Lord. I KNOW with all my heart that the Book of Mormon is true, and I also will take to the death my testimony, never to deny it. If any of you lack wisdom, ask of God! That is my test for you. I love you and miss you all!

Vaya Pues!
Elder Tinkham