Hello to one and all on this beautifully, incredibly hot day in Juticalpa. I hope you are all doing well, and that everyone is taking care of themselves. Well, I'll start out with the bad news, the zone leaders haven't given us the transfers yet, so I won't find out until tonight if I'll be leaving or not. So sorry guys, until next week you'll have to wait to find out! The zone leaders are holding us out to sweat on this one. So if I'm outta here I'm gonna be having to say my farewells pretty quickly!
Anyways, this week has been pretty normal for us with respect to finding, teaching, and all that type of stuff. With a lot of heat, sweat, and everything of that nature. I'm gonna look pretty weird when I get back due to the food diet I have here. Everyone uses very large quantities of oil when they cook their food, so I have lost weight and, without bragging, gained a bit of muscle, except for this blasted pot belly that is coming in. The oil goes straight to the love handles, so I'll be doing a lot of sit ups when I get home!
Okay so I got off on a tangent there, anyways, now for the miracles that have happened this week. Here in Juticalpa we have a couple of investigators that we call "eternal investigators," these are those that always like to listen to us, and often go to church, but for some reason or another do not want to be baptized. We have been thinking a lot about them this week, and trying to figure out different forms that we might use to be able to reach them. Well...I'll admit it didn't work at all, but what did work was a couple of miracles. One of them is with a 17 year old named Brian. He is the son of a recent convert and of the family of Yuliza, remember her? Seems like forever ago we were working with her. Well anyways, the first counselor of the mission, along with a counselor in the branch presidency, were doing visits related to seminary attendance and invited the youth that aren't signed up to attend. They made a visit over there, and I don't know what happened or what they said, but he accepted. Later that day, the other Elders ran into him on the street, and he told them that he was finally ready to be baptized after all that he heard in the morning. The quick acting elders put a baptismal date right then and there in the street for the 23rd of April. Later that night they told me all that had happened, and I did not believe them at all. Brian tends to be a bit of a "deceiver" when it comes to this. But to my great shock and joy, when we went over there to investigate, it was all true! He even came to church with us this week for the first time in 2 years of listening to the missionaries! I could not believe it was really happening. To add to the shock, today he went to seminary for his first day. Wow! There will be more information on that later on...well...if I'm still here haha.
Another miracle that passed is that I think we finally had a breakthrough with Hna. Denia! The other day we were talking to her, and she told me that she is going to be baptized the day Norma is baptized. Norma is a teenage girl that she befriended the week of spring break, and is studying in Tegucigalpa. She has a large testimony of the church, but hasn't been able to be baptized because her parents will not allow it. Well I gave her a call, and she told me that her plans were to come down on the 20th to be baptized on the 23rd! So we talked to Denia and she told me, "alright elders, you got me this time, its finally going to happen." "That's right it is!" I told her. All in all the week passed by with a load of surprising things.
But, I haven't yet finished with the surprising things I have heard said this week. But this one is bad news... We had to drop Sara Torres and her family this week. I don't know what happened, but ever since she got back from vacation visiting her grandma in a tiny pueblo, she was different. And the other day we received a text message from her that said, "I'm sorry, but I am attending another church with my mom, so you don't need to visit me anymore." Well...it came to not much surprise because Elder Hansack and I could tell that she was different. The only answer is that someone in her family told her something bad about the church, and now she doesn't want anything to do with it. It was a heart breaker, but we have to move on right?
Today one of the sister missionaries that I have been serving with for 8 months, Hna. Alvarez from Guatemala, finished her mission. In the morning we had a surprise celebration for her. We told her that we were going to climb the mountain behind my house to show her all of Juticalpa before she leaves. Little did she know that we had cake and soda at the top waiting for her. It was a good time and we took some pictures before she left for her home.
To answer your question mom, yes we finished the house of Santiago and Ana. It's pretty good if I do say so myself. The Hna. Ana is always thanking us for our work, and that they would have never finished without us. We finished the work up by moving all of their things into the house last Wednesday. It was really hard since their house is on a slippery hill, and WAYYYYYY up there, the highest house up. So we sure had a good time carrying mattresses, a dresser, and a bunch of other things all the way up there. I thought of Dad and all the movings he has done with the Elders Quorum with the funny stories he has. But dad, that beats all of yours. If only you saw it haha!
Well, that's all I have for you guys this week, this turned out to be a long letter so I hope you enjoy it. I'll let you know about the transfers next week. I love you all!
Vaya Pues,
Elder Tinkham
Elder Tinkham
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