Greetings from Juticalpa!‏

Hello and a big Oy from Juticalpa! How are all of you doing? I hope you are all well and taking care of yourself.

So yes, I have been transferred, and I officially am in the city of Juticalpa, about 3 hours away from the capital and 7 from Comayagua. I am continuing my reign of pueblos, and this one is quite the pueblo I'll tell you what haha. This place is beautiful, with tons of hills (and I mean tons) and nothing but dirt roads everywhere. This would definitely be the Wyoming of Honduras, but don't really picture it with that cause its quite different haha.

Well anyways to start off, Tuesday was my farewell day where I went around running as fast as I could to all of the houses of the members and investigators to share a quick message and take a picture. It was pretty fine but the only family that I just did not want to leave their house and it broke my heart to do so was Fam. Ramos. They really have become a family to me, and they were really sad to see me go before their baptism and marriage. I told them I would try to come if I could get permission, but I seriously doubt I can go since I'm about 7 hours away. But I know they are in good hands and I await to hear about their baptism. My new companion Elder Lopez is this tiny little buddy from Nicaragua. He is going to have 1 year in the mission this week. He's a funny guy and we get along really well, and President Flores told me that he placed us together because we have both had a lot of success in our short time, and he needs our help here in Juticalpa, and that's what I'm here to do. Our house is actually very nice, and a great improvement from Comayagua, so I'm trying to be optimistic about what I've got here. Oh, and also, I have reunited with my companion Elder Cardon from the MTC as he is here in my district! It's quite the joyous experience being able to talk to him again, and we all had a great time going to a city called Catacamas today for P-day to play some soccer. Catacamas is the farthest away city in all of the mission.

Anyways, things are quite difficult here for Elder Lopez and I. We are both brand new in the area, and so we spent a whole lot of our time walking around trying to figure out where we are and what our area is, and looking for members to meet, and a whole lot of contacting. But there are a few golden gems I can mention for all of you guys, cause when there are rough times good things always happen.

There is one member that is our next door neighbor, whose name is Roni (Ronnie), and he is quite famous among the missionaries. He was baptized about 2 years ago, and ever since he has been like a constant companion of the missionaries. If it weren't for him, my companion and I would be utterly lost and confused here as to what to do. He has his own Preach My Gospel and is an awesome teacher, so thanks a lot to him we have "somewhat" of an idea of what we're doing. The last missionaries that were here didn't really have any investigators, and we were just left with a bunch of eternal investigators, or investigators that missionaries teach for years and nothing happens. So we are working on finding a lot of new people here. But amongst the difficulties, a miracle did happen. After three days, we ended up bringing an investigator to church.

Her name is Maryery (Margerie) and she's 25. We never even taught her a lesson before she came to church. We just contacted her at her friends house, and since there wasn't another guy in the house we couldn't enter, so we just left a pamphlet and asked her to read it and come to church. And wouldn't you know it, she came! Stuff like that just doesn't happen. So we acted as quickly as possible, and placed an appointment for that night. The lesson went great and she loved her experience at church, and I really think we're going to put a baptismal date in the 2nd lesson! We're going to pray about it and see what happens.

That's about all I have for you guys this week, be careful and drive safely in the snow. I'll try and keep the sunscreen thick and stay my distance from the giant bulls and iguanas over here. I'll talk to you all very soon. I love you and miss you all!

Vaya Pues!
Elder Tinkham